REESE  LIBRARY 

OF  TIII-: 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Deceived 


^Accession  No. 


da* No. 


THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  LIVING 


200  YEARS 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAI,. 

PUBLISHED   BY  THE  TWO  HUNDRED   COMPANY 

14  Sausome  Street,  Room  14 
1896 


COPYRIGHT,  1896 
BY  THE  Two  HUNDRED  COMPANY 


76-3*90 


ISSUED  FROM  THE  PRESS  OP 

JAS.    A.  PARISER 
3  MARKET  ST.,   SAN  FRANCISCO 


*J&a^ 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

ADDISON « 1 

CORNARO 7 

A  NUN  or  PADUA 30 

SIR  HENRY  THOMPSON 32 

WILLIAM  KINNEAR 34 

S.  ROWBOTHAM 41 

DE  LACY  EVANS 46 

DR.  WINCKLER 56 

M.  GUBLER 58 

FRUIT  AS  FOOD 63 

EMMET  DENSMORE 68 

W.  W.  HALL 97 

HELEN  DENSMORE 107 

HERBERT  SPENCER 112 

RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB 115 

PHOSPHORUS 128 

TREATMENT  OF  THE  SKIN 133 

WHAT  TO  DRINK 136 

WHAT  TO  EAT 141 

TABLE  OF  FOODS 158 

SUMMARY 160 


TO  THE  READER. 


This  work  represents  the  labor  of  many  odd  hours 
in  a  life  devoted  to  business  pursuits.  No  claim  is 
made  that  the  discoveries  and  suggestions  relative 
to  diet  are  new  or  original.  Much  reading  and  ob- 
servation in  regard  to  this  subject  showed  the  pos- 
sibility of  condensing  the  salient  features  of  the 
works  of  leading  authors  on  the  subject  of  longev- 
ity— a  subject  of  more  importance  to  humanity  than 
any  and  all  others. 

There  is  no  royal  road  to  health  or  long  life,  but 
neither  is  there  any  need  for  people  to  grope  their 
way  blindly  along,  and  make  both  a  matter  of  mere 
chance,  as  the  vast  majority  of  the  human  race  are 
now  doing.  Such  writers  as  De  Lacy  Evans,  and 
other  scientific  investigators,  point  out  a  path  to 
perfect  health,  and  prove  age  to  be  a  controllable 
disease. 

Illness  and  decrepitude  are  shown  to  be  unneces- 
sary evils,  caused  almost  invariably  by  the  lack  of 

(T) 


vi  PREFACE. 

the  knowledge  of  the  plain  and  simple  rules  which 
are  compiled  and  condensed  in  this  little  volume. 
The  punishments  inflicted  by  nature  are  usually  as 
just  as  they  are  sure.  Where  people  sin  willfully 
sympathy  is  wasted.  A  quotation  will  be  found 
herein  from  Sir  Wm.  Thompson,  in  which  he  points 
out  an  easy  road  to  sickness  and  a  rapid  method  of 
growing  old  —  an  illustration  of  the  absurdity  of  suf- 
fering the  greatest  misery  for  an  indefinite  period, 
as  the  result  of  two  hours  of  imaginary  happiness. 

Modern  scientific  discoveries  in  relation  to  diet 
indicate  a  higher  and  more  rational  mode  of  living; 
and  yet  it  is  surprising  to  note  how  much  of  this 
was  foreshadowed  three  hundred  years  ago  by  Cor- 
iiaro,  who  had  no  guide  but  his  stomach  and  his 
common  sense.  But  these  are  not  infallible  guides, 
because  foods  which  are  easily  digested,  and  water 
which  is  most  palatable  and  apparently  most  pure, 
may  contain  substances  of  an  injurious  nature. 

The  ideas  embodied  here  are  wholly  in  the  line  of 
progress,  and  are  such  as  may  and  should  be  thor- 
oughly understood  by  all.  If  put  only  into  partial 
application,  the  results  will  be  beneficial;  if  con- 
scientiously carried  out,  all  may  be  accomplished 


PREFACE. 


vii 


that  is  claimed  for  them.  It  is  only  a  question  of 
how  much  self-denial  the  reader  is  capable  of,  in  or- 
der to  break  away  from  injurious  habits  of  eating 
and  drinking,  and  to  form  new  ones  upon  a  correct 
basis.  After  a  personal  experience,  he  doubtless  will 
share  with  the  writer  in  a  sincere  regret  that  the 
knowledge  of  what  constitutes  proper  diet  was  not 
long  ago  put  into  such  form  as  to  be  easily  accessible 
to  all  who  love  life  sufficiently  to  wish  to  prolong  it 
two  hundred  years. 


THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  LIVING 

200  TEAKS. 


ADDISON. 


[From  the  Spectator,  1712  ] 

There  is  a  story  in  the  Arabian  Nights  Tales  of  a  king 
who  had  long  languished  under  an  ill  habit  of  body,  and 
had  taken  abundance  of  remedies  to  no  purpose.  At 
length,  says  the  fable,  a  physician  cured  him  by  the  fol- 
lowing method:  He  took  a  hollow  ball  of  wood,  and  filled 
it  with  several  drugs,  after  which  he  closed  it  up  so  arti- 
ficially that  nothing  appeared.  He  likewise  took  a  mall, 
and,  after  having  hollowed  the  handle,  and  that  part 
which  strikes  the  ball,  he  inclosed  in  them  several  drugs, 
after  the  same  manner  as  in  the  ball  itself.  He  then 
ordered  the  sultan,  who  was  his  patient,  to  exercise  him- 
self early  in  the  morning  with  these  rightly  prepared 
instruments,  till  such  time  as  he  should  sweat;  when,  as 
the  story  goes,  the  virtue  of  the  medicaments  perspiring 
through  the  wood  had  so  good  an  influence  on  the  sultan's 
constitution,  that  they  cured  him  of  an  indisposition 
which  all  the  compositions  he  had  taken  inwardly  had 
not  been  able  to  remove.  This  eastern  allegory  is  finely 

(i) 


2  ADDISON. 

contrived  to  show  us  how  beneficial  bodily  labor  is  to 
health,  and  that  exercise  is  the  most  effectual  physic.  I 
have  described,  in  my  hundred  and  fifteenth  paper,  from 
the  general  structure  and  mechanism  of  a  human  body, 
how  absolutely  necessary  exercise  is  for  its  preservation;  I 
shall,  in  this  place,  suggest  another  great  preservative  of 
health,  which,  in  many  cases,  produces  the  same  effects 
as  exercise,  and  may,  in  some  measure,  supply  its  place, 
where  opportunities  of  exercise  are  wanting.  The  pre- 
servative I  am  speaking  of  is  temperance,  which  has 
those  particular  advantages  above  all  other  means  of 
health,  that  it  may  be  practiced  by  all  ranks  and  con- 
ditions, at  any  season,  or  in  any  place.  It  is  a  kind  of 
regimen  into  which  every  man  may  put  himself  without 
interruption  to  business,  expense  of  money,  or  loss  of 
time.  If  exercise  throws  off  all  superfluities,  temperance 
prevents  them;  if  exercise  clears  the  vessels,  temperance 
neither  satiates  nor  overstrains  them;  if  exercise  raises 
proper  ferments  in  the  humors  and  promotes  the  circula- 
tion of  the  blood,  temperance  gives  nature  her  full  play, 
and  enables  her  to  exert  herself  in  all  her  force  and  vigor; 
if  exercise  dissipates  a  growing  distemper,  temperance 
starves  it. 

Physic,  for  the  most  part,  is  nothing  else  but  the  sub- 
stitute of  exercise  or  temperance.  Medicines  are,  indeed, 
absolutely  necessary  in  acute  distempers,  that  cannot 
wait  the  slow  operations  of  these  two  great  instruments 
of  health;  but,  were  men  to  live  in  a  habitual  course  of 
exercise  and  temperance,  there  would  be  but  little  occa- 
sion for  them.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  those  parts  of 


ADDISON. 

the  world  are  most  healthy  where  they  subsist  by  the 
chase,  and  that  men  lived  longest  when  their  lives  were 
employed  in  hunting,  and  when  they  had  little  food 
besides  what  they  caught.  Blistering,  cupping,  and  bleed- 
ing, are  seldom  of  use  but  to  the  idle  and  intemperate. 
All  those  inward  applications,  which  are  so  much  in 
practice  among  us,  are,  for  the  most  part,  nothing  else 
but  expedients  to  make  luxury  consistent  with  health. 
The  apothecary  is  perpetually  employed  in  countermin- 
ing the  cook  and  the  vintner.  It  is  said  of  Diogenes, 
that,  meeting  a  young  man  who  was  going  to  a  feast,  he 
took  him  up  in  the  street  and  carried  him  home  to  his 
friends,  as  one  who  was  running  into  imminent  danger, 
had  he  not  prevented  him.  What  would  that  philoso- 
pher have  said  had  he  been  present  at  the  gluttony  of  a 
modern  meal?  Would  not  he  have  thought  the  master 
of  a  family  mad,  and  have  begged  his  servants  to  tie 
down  his  hands,  had  he  seen  him  devour  fowl,  fish,  and 
flesh,  swallow  oil  and  vinegar,  wines,  and  spices,  throw 
down  salads  of  twenty  different  herbs,  sauces  of  a  hun- 
dred ingredients,  confections,  and  fruits  of  numberless 
sweets  and  flavors?  What  unnatural  motions  and  counter- 
ferments  must  such  a  medley  of  intemperance  have  pro- 
duced in  the  body.  For  my  part,  when  I  behold  a  fashion- 
able table  set  out  in  all  its  magnificence,  I  fancy  I  see  gouts 
and  dropsies,  fevers  and  lethargies,  with  other  innumer- 
able distempers,  lying  in  ambuscade  among  the  dishes. 

Nature  delights  in  the  most  plain  and  simple  diet. 
Every  animal  but  man  keeps  to  one  dish.  Herbs  are 
the  food  of  this  species,  fish  of  that,  and  flesh  of  a  third. 


4  ADDISON. 

Man  falls  upon  every  thing  that  comes  in  his  way;  not  the 
smallest  fruit  or  excrescence  of  the  earth,  scarce  a  berry 
or  a  mushroom,  can  escape  him. 

It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  any  determinate  rule  for 
temperance,  because  what  is  luxury  in  one  may  be  tem- 
perance in  another;  but  there  are  few  that  have  lived  any 
time  in  the  world  who  are  not  judges  of  their  own  con- 
stitutions, so  far  as  to  know  what  kinds  and  what  pro- 
portions of  food  do  best  agree  with  them.  Were  I  to 
consider  my  readers  as  my  patients,  and  to  prescribe 
such  a  kind  of  temperance  as  is  accommodated  to  all 
persons,  and  such  as  is  particularly  suitable  to  our 
climate  and  way  of  living,  I  would  copy  the  following 
rules  of  a  very  eminent  physician:  "Make  your  whole 
repast  out  of  one  dish.  If  you  indulge  in  a  second,  avoid 
drinking  any  thing  strong  till  you  have  finished  your 
meal;  at  the  same  time,  abstain  from  all  sauces,  or,  at 
least,  such  as  are  not  the  most  plain  and  simple."  A 
man  could  not  be  well  guilty  of  gluttony  if  he  stuck  to 
these  few  obvious  and  easy  rules.  In  the  first  case,  there 
would  be  no  variety  of  tastes  to  solicit  his  palate,  and 
occasion  excess;  nor,  in  the  second,  any  artificial  provo- 
catives to  relieve  satiety  and  create  a  false  appetite. 
Were  I  to  prescribe  a  rule  for  drinking,  it  should  be 
formed  upon  a  saying  quoted  by  Sir  William  Temple: 
"The  first  glass  for  myself,  the  second  for  my  friends, 
the  third  for  good  humor,  and  the  fourth  for  mine 
enemies."  But,  because  it  is  impossible  for  one  who 
lives  in  the  world  to  diet  himself  always  in  so  philo- 
sophical a  manner,  I  think  every  man  should  have  his 


v&i 


ADDISON.  ^^OBN^. 

days  of  abstinence,  according  as  his  constitution  will  per- 
mit. These  are  great  reliefs  to  nature,  as  they  qualify  her 
for  struggling  with  hunger  and  thirst  whenever  any  dis- 
temper or  duty  of  life  may  put  her  upon  such  difficulties; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  give  her  an  opportunity  of  extri- 
cating herself  from  her  oppressions,  and  recovering  the 
several  tones  and  springs  of  her  distended  vessels;  be- 
sides that,  abstinence,  well-timed,  often  kills  a  sickness 
in  embryo,  and  destroys  the  first  seeds  of  an  indisposi- 
tion. It  is  observed  by  two  or  three  ancient  authors  that 
Socrates,  notwithstanding  he  lived  in  Athens  during  that 
great  plague  which  has  made  so  much  noise  through  all 
ages,  and  has  been  celebrated,  at  different  times,  by  such 
eminent  hands — I  say,  notwithstanding  he  lived  in  the 
time  of  this  devouring  pestilence,  he  never  caught  the 
least  infection,  which  those  writers  unanimously  ascribe 
to  that  uninterrupted  temperance  which  he  always  ob- 
served. 

And  here  I  cannot  but  mention  an  observation  which  I 
have  often  made,  upon  reading  the  lives  of  the  philoso- 
phers, and.  comparing  them  with  any  series  of  kings  or 
great  men  of  the  same  number.  If  we  consider  these 
ancient  sages,  a  great  part  of  whose  philosophy  consisted 
in  a  temperate  and  abstemious  course  of  life,  one  would 
think  the  life  of  a  philosopher  and  the  life  of  a  man  were 
of  two  different  dates.  For  we  find  that  the  generality  of 
these  wise  men  were  nearer  a  hundred  than  sixty  years 
of  age  at  the  time  of  their  respective  deaths.  But  the 
most  remarkable  instance  of  the  efficacy  of  temperance 
toward  the  procuring  long  life  is  what  we  meet  with  in  a 


6  ADDISON. 

little  book  published  by  LEWIS  CORNABO,  the  Venetian 
which  I  rather  mention,  because  it  is  of  undoubted  credit, 
as  the  late  Venetian  ambassador,  who  was  of  the  same 
family,  attested  more  than  once  in  conversation  when  he 
resided  in  England.  Cornaro,  who  was  the  author  of  the 
little  treatise  I  am  mentioning,  was  of  an  infirm  consti- 
tution, till  about  forty,  when,  by  obstinately  persisting 
in  an  exact  course  of  temperance,  he  recovered  a  perfect 
state  of  health;  insomuch  that,  at  fourscore,  he  published 
his  book,  which  has  been  translated  into  English,  under 
the  title  of  Sure  and  Certain  Methods  of  Attaining  a  Long 
and  Healthy  Life.  He  lived  to  give  a  third  or  fourth 
edition  of  it;  and,  after  having  passed  his  hundredth 
year,  died  without  pain  or  agony,  and  like  one  who  falls 
asleep.  The  treatise  I  mention  has  been  taken  notice  of 
by  several  eminent  authors,  and  is  written  with  such  a 
spirit  of  cheerfulness,  religion,  and  good  sense  as  are  the 
natural  concomitants  of  temperance  and  sobriety.  The 
mixture  of  the  old  man  in  this  work  is  rather  a  recom- 
mendation than  a  discredit  to  it. 


AN  ABRIDGMENT 

OF   THE 

SEVERAL  TREATISES 

BY  LEWIS   CORNARO. 


It  is  universally  agreed  that  custom,  with  time,  be- 
comes a  second  nature,  forcing  men  to  use  that,  whether 
good  or  bad,  to  which  they  have  been  habituated;  nay, 
we  see  habit,  in  many  instances,  gain  an  ascendency  over 
reason.  This  is  so  undeniably  true,  that  virtuous  men, 
by  conversing  with  the  wicked,  very  often  fall  into  the 
same  vicious  course  of  life,  and  the  contrary  is  equally 
true. 

To  come,  then,  to  that  abuse  of  which  I  have  proposed 
to  speak,  namely,  intemperance.  I  say  that  it  is  a  great 
pity  it  should  have  prevailed  so  much  as  entirely  to  ban- 
ish sobriety.  Though  all  are  agreed  that  intemperance 
is  the  offspring  of  gluttony,  and  sober  living  of  abstem- 
iousness, the  former,  nevertheless,  is  considered  as  a 
virtue  and  mark  of  distinction,  and  the  latter  as  dishonor- 
able, and  the  badge  of  avarice.  Such  mistaken  notions 
are  entirely  owing  to  the  power  of  custom,  established  by 
our  senses  and  irregular  appetites;  these  have  blinded 
and  besotted  men  to  such  a  degree  that,  leaving  the  paths 
of  virtue,  they  have  followed  those  of  vice,  which  are  apt 
to  lead  them  imperceptibly  to  an  old  age,  burdened  with 
strange  and  mortal  infirmities,  so  as  to  render  them  quite 
decrepit  before  forty,  contrary  to  the  effects  of  sobriety, 

(7) 


8  CORNARO. 

which,  before  it  was  banished  by  this  destructive  in- 
temperance, used  to  keep  men  sound  and  hearty  at  a 
great  age. 

How  many  friends  of  mine,  men  of  the  finest  under- 
standing and  most  amiable  disposition,  have  I  seen  carried 
off  by  this  plague  in  the  flower  of  their  youth !  who,  were 
they  now  living,  would  be  ornaments  to  the  public,  and 
whose  company  I  should  enjoy  with  as  much  pleasure  as 
I  am  now  deprived  of  it  with  concern. 

In  order,  therefore,  to  put  a  stop  to  so  great  an  evil,  I 
have  resolved,  by  this  short  discourse,  to  demonstrate 
that  intemperance  is  an  abuse  which  may  be  easily  re- 
moved, and  that  the  good  old  sober  living  may  be  substi- 
tuted in  its  stead;  and  this  I  undertake  the  more  readily, 
as  many  young  men  of  the  best  understanding,  knowing 
that  it  is  a  vice,  have  requested  it  of  me,  moved  thereto 
by  seeing  their  fathers  drop  off  in  the  flower  of  their 
youth,  while  I  remain  so  sound  and  hearty,  at  a  great 
age.  They  expressed  a  desire  to  reach  the  same  term, 
nature  not  forbidding  us  to  wish  for  longevity,  and  old 
age,  being  in  fact  that  time  of  life  in  which  prudence  can 
be  best  exercised,  and  the  fruits  of  all  the  other  virtues 
enjoyed  with  the  least  opposition,  the  senses  being  then 
so  subdued  that  man  gives  himself  up  entirely  to  reason. 
They  beseeched  me  to  let  them  know  the  method  pur- 
sued by  me  to  attain  it;  and  then,  finding  them  intent 
on  so  laudable  a  pursuit.  I  resolved  to  treat  of  that 
method,  in  order  to  be  of  service,  not  only  to  them,  but  to 
all  those  who  may  be  willing  to  peruse  this  discourse.  I 
shall,  therefore,  give  my  reasons  for  renouncing  intern- 


y  \ 

CORNARO.  9 

^5t*-_ 


perance,  and  betaking  myself  to  a  sober  course  of  life; 
declare  freely  the  method  pursued  by  me  for  that  pur- 
pose; and  then  set  forth  the  effects  of  so  good  a  habit 
upon  me;  whence  it  may  be  clearly  gathered  how  easy 
it  is  to  remove  the  abuse  of  intemperance.  I  shall  con- 
clude by  showing  how  many  conveniences  and  blessings 
are  the  consequences  of  a  sober  life. 

I  say,  then,  that  the  heavy  train  of  infirmities,  which 
had  not  only  invaded,  but  even  made  great  inroads  in 
my  constitution,  were  my  motives  for  renouncing  intem- 
perance, to  which  I  had  been  greatly  addicted;  so  that, 
in  consequence  of  it,  and  the  badness  of  my  constitution, 
my  stomach  being  exceedingly  cold  and  moist,  I  had 
fallen  into  different  kinds  of  disorders,  such  as  pains  in 
the  stomach,  the  colic,  and  the  gout,  attended,  by  what 
was  still  worse,  an  almost  continual  slow  fever,  a  stomach 
generally  out  of  order,  and  a  perpetual  thirst.  From 
these  natural  and  acquired  disorders  the  best  delivery  I 
had  to  hope  was  death,  to  put  an  end  to  the  pains  and 
miseries  of  life;  a  period  as  remote,  in  the  regular  course 
of  nature,  as  I  had  forwarded  it  by  my  irregular  manner 
of  living.  Finding  myself,  therefore,  in  such  unhappy 
circumstances  between  my  thirty-fifth  and  fortieth  years, 
every  thing  that  could  be  thought  of  having  been  tried  to 
no  purpose  to  relieve  me,  the  physicians  gave  me  to  under- 
stand that  there  was  but  one  method  left  to  get  the  bet- 
ter of  my  complaints,  provided  I  would  resolve  to  use  it, 
and  patiently  persevere  in  it.  This  was  a  sober  and 
regular  life,  which  they  told  me  would  still  be  of  the 
greatest  power  and  efficacy;  as  powerful  and  efficacious 


10  CORNARO. 

as  the  other,  which  was  contrary  to  it  in  every  thing;  I 
mean  an  intemperate  and  irregular  one;  and  that  of  this 
power  and  efficacy  I  might  convince  myself,  since,  as  by 
my  disorders  I  was  become  infirm,  though  not  reduced 
so  low  that  a  regular  life,  the  reverse  in  its  effects  of  an 
irregular  one,  might  not  still  entirely  recover  me.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  in  fact  appears,  such  a  regular  life, 
whilst  observed,  preserves  men  of  a  bad  constitution  and 
far  gone  in  years,  and  for  a  long  space  of  time,  just  as  a 
contrary  course  has  the  power  to  destroy  those  of  the  best 
constitution  in  their  prime;  for  this  evident  reason,  that 
different  modes  of  life  should  be  attended  by  different 
effects;  art  following,  even  herein,  the  steps  of  nature, 
with  equal  power  to  correct  natural  vices  and  imperfec- 
tions. This  is  obvious  in  husbandry  and  the  like.  They 
added  that  if  I  did  not  immediately  have  recourse  to  that 
medicine  I  could  receive  no  benefit  from  it  in  a  few 
months,  and  that  in  a  few  more  I  must  resign  myself  to 
death. 

These  solid  and  ingenuous  arguments  made  such  an 
impression  on  me  that,  mortified  as  I  was,  besides,  by 
the  thoughts  of  dying  in  the  prime  of  life,  though  per- 
petually tormented  by  various  diseases,  I  immediately 
concluded  that  the  foregoing  contrary  effects  could  not 
but  be  produced  by  regularity  and  irregularity;  and 
therefore,  full  of  hopes,  resolved,  in  order  to  avoid  at  once 
both  death  and  disease,  to  betake  myself  to  a  regular 
course  of  life.  Having,  upon  this,  inquired  of  them  what 
rules  I  should  follow,  they  told  me  that  I  must  not  use 
any  food,  solid  or  liquid,  but  such  as,  being  generally  pre- 


CORNARO.  11 

scribed  to  sick  persons,  is  for  that  reason  called  diet,  and 
both  very  sparingly.  These  directions,  to  say  the  truth, 
they  had  before  given  me;  but  it  was  at  a  time  of  life 
when,  impatient  at  such  restraint,  and  finding  myself 
satiated,  as  it  were,  with  such  food,  I  could  not  put  up 
with  it,  and  therefore  ate  freely  of  every  thing  I  liked 
best;  and  likewise,  feeling  myself  in  a  manner  parched 
Up  by  the  heat  of  my  disease,  made  no  scruple  of  drink- 
ing, and  in  large  quantities,  the  wines  that  best  pleased 
my  palate.  This,  indeed,  like  all  other  patients,  I  kept  a 
secret  from  my  physicians.  But  when  I  had  once  resolved 
to  live  soberly,  and  according  to  the  dictates  of  right  and 
reason,  in  consequence  of  my  discovering  that  it  was  no 
difficult  matter — nay,  that  it  was  my  duty  as  a  man  so 
to  do — I  entered  with  so  much  resolution  upon  this  course 
of  life  that  nothing  since  has  been  able  to  divert  me  from 
it.  The  consequence  was  that  in  a  few  days  I  began  to 
perceive  that  such  a  course  agreed  with  me  very  well; 
and,  by  pursuing  it,  in  less  than  a  year  I  found  myself 
(some  persons,  perhaps,  will  not  believe  it)  entirely  freed 
from  all  my  complaints. 

Having  thus  recovered  my  health,  I  began  seriously  to 
consider  the  power  of  temperance,  and  say  to  myself  that 
if  this  virtue  had  efficacy  enough  to  subdue  such  grievous 
disorders  as  mine,  it  must  have  still  greater  to  preserve 
me  in  health,  to  help  my  bad  constitution,  and  comfort 
my  very  weak  stomach.  I  therefore  applied  myself  dili- 
gently to  discover  what  kinds  of  food  suited  me  best. 
But,  first,  I  resolved  to  try  whether  those  which  pleased 
my  palate  agreed  or  disagreed  with  my  stomach,  in  order 


12  CORNARO. 

to  judge  for  myself  of  the  truth  of  that  proverb,  which  I 
once  held  for  true,  and  is  universally  held  as  such  in  the 
highest  degree,  insomuch  that  epicures,  who  give  loose  to 
their  appetites,  lay  it  down  as  a  fundamental  maxim.  The 
proverb  is,  that  whatever  pleases  the  palate  must  agree  with 
the  stomach,  and  nourish  the  body;  or  that  which  is  pala- 
table must  be  equally  wholesome  and  nourishing.  The 
issue  was  that  I  found  it  to  be  false;  for,  though  rough 
and  very  cold  wines,  as  likewise  melons,  and  especially 
salad,  pork,  tarts,  garden-stuff,  pastry,  and  the  like,  were 
very  pleasing  to  my  palate,  they  disagreed  with  my 
stomach.  Having  thus  convinced  myself  that  the  prov- 
erb in  question  was  false,  I  disregarded  it  as  such;  and, 
taught  by  experience,  I  gave  over  the  use  of  such  meats 
and  wines,  and  likewise  of  ice;  chose  wines  suited  to 
my  stomach,  drinking  but  the  quantity  I  knew  I  could 
digest.  I  did  the  same  with  meats,  as  well  in  regard 
to  quantity  as  to  quality,  accustoming  myself  to  contrive 
matters  so  as  never  to  cloy  my  stomach  with  eating  or 
drinking,  but  constantly  rise  from  table  with  a  disposi- 
tion to  eat  and  drink  still  more.  In  this  I  conformed  to 
the  proverb  which  says  that  a  man,  to  consult  with  his 
health,  must  check  his  appetite.  Having,  in  this  manner 
and  for  these  reasons,  conquered  intemperance  and  irregu- 
larity, I  betook  myself  entirely  to  a  temperate  and  regu- 
lar life;  this  first  affected  in  me  that  alteration  which  I 
have  already  mentioned;  that  is,  in  less  than  a  year  it  rid 
me  of  all  those  disorders  which  had  taken  so  deep  a  root 
in  me;  nay,  as  I  have  already  observed,  made  such  a 
progress  as  to  be  in  a  manner  incurable.  It  had  like- 


COBNARO.  13 

wise  this  other  good  effect,  that  I  no  longer  experienced 
those  annual  fits  of  sickness  with  which  I  used  to  be 
afflicted,  when  I  followed  a  different,  that  is,  a  sensual, 
course  of  life;  for  then  I  used  to  be  attacked  every  year 
with  a  strange  kind  of  fever,  which  sometimes  brought 
me  to  death's  door.  From  this  plague,  then,  I  also  freed 
myself,  and  became  exceedingly  healthy,  as  I  have  con- 
tinued from  that  time  forward  to  this  day,  and  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  I  never  trespassed  against  regu- 
larity, which,  by  its  infinite  efficacy,  has  been  the  cause 
that  the  meat  I  constantly  ate,  and  the  wine  I  constantly 
drank,  being  such  as  agreed  with  my  constitution,  and 
taken  in  proper  quantities,  imparted  all  their  virtues  to 
my  body,  and  then  left  it  without  difficulty,  and  without 
engendering  in  it  any  bad  humors. 

In  consequence,  therefore,  of  my  taking  such  methods, 
I  have  always  enjoyed  the  best  of  health.  It  is  true, 
indeed,  that  besides  the  two  foregoing  most  important 
rules  relative  to  eating  and  drinking,  which  I  have 
ever  been  very  scrupulous  to  observe,  that  is,  not  to 
take  of  any  thing  but  as  much  as  my  stomach  could 
easily  digest,  and  to  use  those  things  only  which  agreed 
with  me,  I  have  carefully  avoided  heat,  cold,  and  extra- 
ordinary fatigue,  interruption  of  my  usual  hours  of  rest, 
excessive  venery,  making  any  stay  in  bad  air,  and 
exposing  myself  to  the  wind  and  sun;  for  these,  also, 
are  too  often  the  causes  of  great  disorders.  But  then,  for- 
tunately, there  is  no  great  difficulty  in  avoiding  them, 
the  love  of  life  and  health  having  more  sway  over  men  of 
understanding  than  any  satisfaction  they  could  find  in 


14  CORNARO. 

doing  what  must  be  extremely  hurtful  to  their  constitu- 
tions. I  likewise  did  all  that  lay  in  my  power  to  avoid 
those  evils  which  we  do  not  find  so  easy  to  remove; 
these  are,  melancholy,  hatred,  and  other  violent  passions, 
which  appear  to  have  the  greatest  influence  over  our 
bodies.  However,  I  have  not  been  able  to  guard  so  well 
against  either  one  or  the  other  kind  of  those  disorders,  as 
not  to  suffer  myself  now  and  then  to  be  hurried  away  by 
many,  not  to  say  all,  of  them;  but  I  reaped  one  great 
benefit  from  my  weakness,  that  of  knowing  by  experience, 
that  these  passions  have,  in  the  main,  no  great  influence 
over  bodies  governed  by  the  two  foregoing  rules  of  eating 
and  drinking,  and  therefore  can  do  them  but  very  little 
harm;  so  that  it  may  with  great  truth  be  affirmed,  that 
whoever  observes  these  two  capital  rules,  is  liable  to  very 
little  inconvenience  from  any  other  excess.  This,  Galen, 
who  was  an  eminent  physician,  observed  before  me.  He 
affirms,  that,  so  long  as  he  followed  these  two  rules,  rela- 
tive to  eating  and  drinking,  he  suffered  but  little  from 
other  disorders,  so  little,  that  they  never  gave  him  above 
a  day's  uneasiness.  That  what  he  says  is  true,  I  am  a 
living  witness,  and  so  are  many  others  who  know  me  and 
have  seen  how  often  I  have  been  exposed  to  heats  and 
colds,  and  such  other  disagreeable  changes  of  weather; 
and  have  likewise  seen  me  (owing  to  various  misfortunes 
which  have  more  than  once -befallen  me)  greatly  disturbed 
in  mind.  For  they  can  not  only  say  of  me  that  such  dis- 
turbance of  mind  h:is  done  me  very  little  harm,  but  they 
can  aver  of  many  Diners,  who  did  not  lead  a  sober  and 
regular  life,  that  it  proved  very  prejudicial  to  them, 


X 

COBNARO.  16 

x^c^^/rr  ,,     -j? 

amongst  whom  was  a  brother  of  my  own,  and  others  of 
my  family,  who,  trusting  to  the  goodness  of  their  consti- 
tution, did  not  follow  my  way  of  living.  The  consequence 
hereof  was  of  the  greatest  disservice  to  them,  the  perturb- 
ations of  mind  having  thereby  acquired  an  extraordi- 
nary influence  over  their  bodies.  Such,  in  a  word,  was 
their  grief  and  dejection  at  seeing  me  involved  in  ex- 
pensive lawsuits,  commenced  against  me  by  great  and 
powerful  men,  that,  fearing  I  should  be  cast,  they  were 
seized  with  that  melancholy  humor  with  which  intemper- 
ate bodies  always  abound;  and  these  humors  took  such 
effect  upon  them,  and  increased  to  such  a  degree,  as  to 
carry  them  off  before  their  time;  whereas,  I  suffered  noth- 
ing on  the  occasion,  as  I  had  in  me  no  superfluous  hu- 
mors of  that  kind. 

But  I  must  go  a  step  farther,  and  say  that  evils  which 
immediately  affect  bodies  can  do  very  little  mischief,  or 
cause  very  little  pain,  if  a  regular  life  nas  been  led; 
and,  that  this  is  true,  I  have  myself  experienced  at  the 
age  of  seventy.  I  happened,  as  is  often  the  case,  to  be  in 
a  coach,  which,  going  at  a  pretty  smart  rate,  was  overset, 
and,  in  that  condition,  drawn  a  considerable  way  by  the 
horses  before  means  could  be  found  to  stop  them;  whence 
I  received  so  many  shocks  and  bruises  that  I  was  taken 
out  with  my  head  and  all  the  rest  of  my  body  terribly 
battered,  and  a  dislocated  leg  and  arm.  When  I  was 
brought  home,  the  family  immediately  sent  for  the  phy- 
sicians, who,  on  their  arrival,  seeing  me  in  so  bad  a  plight, 
concluded  that  within  three  days  I  should  die,  neverthe- 
less, they  would  try  what  good  two  things  would  do  me; 


16  CORNAltO. 

one  was  to  bleed  me,  the  other,  to  purge  me;  and  thereby 
prevent  my  humours  altering,  as  they  every  moment 
expected,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  ferment  greatly,  and 
bring  on  a  high  fever.  But  I,  on  the  contrary,  who  knew 
that  the  sober  life  I  had  led  for  many  years  past,  had  so 
well  united,  harmonized,  and  disposed  my  humors,  as 
not  to  leave  it  in  their  power  to  ferment  to  such  a  de- 
gree, refused  to  be  either  bled  or  purged.  I  just  caused 
my  leg  and  arm  to  be  set,  and  suffered  myself  to  be  rub- 
bed with  some  oils,  which  they  said  were  proper  on  the 
occasion.  Thus,  without  using  any  kind  of  remedy,  I 
recovered,  as  I  thought  I  should,  without  feeling  the  least 
alteration  in  myself,  or  any  other  bad  effects  from  the 
accident;  a  thing  which  appeared  no  less  miraculous  in 
the  eyes  of  the  physicians.  Hence  we  are  to  infer,  that 
whoever  leads  a  sober  and  regular  life,  and  commits  no 
excess  in  his  diet,  can  suffer  but  very  little  from  dis- 
orders of  any  kind,  or  external  accidents.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  conclude,  especially  from  the  late  trial  I  have 
had,  that  excesses  in  eating  and  drinking  are  fatal.  Of 
this  I  convinced  myself  four  years  ago,  when,  by  the 
advice  of  my  physicians,  the  instigation  of  my  friends, 
and  the  importunity  of  my  own  family,  I  consented  to 
such  an  excess,  which,  as  it  will  appear  hereafter,  was 
attended  with  far  worse  consequences  than  could  natur- 
ally be  expected.  This  consisted  in  increasing  the  quan- 
tity of  food  I  generally  made  use  of;  which  increase 
alone  brought  on  me  a  most  cruel  fit  of  sickness.  And, 
as  it  is  a  case  so  much  in  point  to  the  subject  in  hand, 


CORNARO.  17 

and  the  knowledge  of  it  may  be  useful  to  some  of  my 
readers,  I  shall  take  the  trouble  to  relate  it. 

I  say,  then,  that  my  dearest  friends  and  relations,  actu- 
ated by  the  warm  and  laudable  affection  and  regard  they 
had  for  me,  seeing  how  little  I  ate,  represented  to  me,  in 
conjunction  with  my  physicians,  that  the  sustenance  I 
took  could  not  be  sufficient  to  support  one  so  far  ad- 
vanced in  years,  when  it  was  become  necessary  not 
only  to  preserve  nature,  but  also  to  increase  its  vigor. 
That,  as  this  could  not  be  done  without  food,  it  was 
absolutely  incumbent  upon  me  to  eat  a  little  more  plen- 
tifully. I,  on  the  other  hand,  produced  my  reasons 
for  not  complying  with  their  desires.  These  were,  that 
nature  is  content  with  little,  and  that  with  this  little  I 
had  preserved  myself  so  many  years;  and  that,  to  me, 
the  habit  of  it  was  become  a  second  nature;  besides,  it 
was  more  agreeable  to  reason,  that,  as  I  advanced  in 
years,  and  lost  rcy  strength,  I  should  rather  lessen  than 
increase  the  quantity  of  my  food.  Further,  that  it  was 
but  natural  to  think  that  the  powers  of  the  stomach  grew 
weaker  from  day  to  day;  on  which  account  I  could  see 
no  reason  to  make  such  an  addition.  To  corroborate  my 
arguments,  I  alleged  those  two  natural  and  very  true 
proverbs;  one,  that  he  who  has  a  mind  to  eat  a  great  deal 
must  eat  but  little;  which  is  said  for  no  other  reason  than 
this,  that  eating  little  makes  a  man  live  very  long,  and, 
living  very  long,  he  must  eat  a  great  deal.  The  other 
proverb  was,  that  what  we  leave  after  making  a  hearty 
meal  does  us  more  good  than  what  we  have  eaten.  But 
neither  these  proverbs,  nor  any  other  arguments  I  could 


18  CORNARO. 

think  of,  were  able  to  prevent  their  teasing  me  more  than 
ever.  Wherefore,  not  to  appear  obstinate,  or  affecting  to 
know  more  than  the  physicians  themselves,  but,  above 
all.  to  please  my  family,  who  very  earnestly  desired  it, 
from  a  persuasion  that  such  an  addition  to  my  usual 
allowance  must  preserve  the  tone  of  my  stomach,  I  con- 
sented to  increase  the  quantity  of  food,  but  by  two  ounces 
only.  So  that,  as  before,  what  with  bread,  meat,  the  yolk 
of  an  egg,  and  soup,  I  ate  as  much  as  weighed  in  all 
twelve  ounces,  neither  more  nor  less,  I  now  increased  it 
to  fourteen;  and,  as  before  I  drank  but  fourteen  ounces  of 
wine,  I  now  increased  it  to  sixteen.  This  increase  and 
irregularity  had,  in  eight  days'  time,  such  an  effect  upon 
me  that,  from  being  cheerful  and  brisk,  I  began  to  be- 
peevish  and  melancholy,  so  that  nothing  could  please  me, 
and  was  constantly  of  so  strange  a  temper  that  I  neither 
knew  what  to  say  to  others,  nor  what  to  do  with  myself. 
On  the  twelfth  day  I  was  attacked  with  a  most  violent 
pain  in  my  side,  which  held  me  twenty-two  hours,  and 
was  succeeded  by  a  terrible  fever,  which  continued  thirty- 
five  days  and  as  many  nights,  without  giving  me  a  mo- 
ment's respite,  though,  to  say  the  truth,  it  began  to  abate 
gradually  on  the  sixteenth;  but,  notwithstanding  such 
abatement,  I  could  not,  during  the  whole  time,  sleep  half 
a  quarter  of  an  hour  together,  insomuch  that  every  one 
looked  upon  me  as  a  dead  man;  but,  God  be  praised,  I 
recovered  merely  by  my  former  regular  course  of  life, 
though  then  in  my  seventy-eighth  year,  and  in  the  coldest 
season  of  a  very  cold  year,  and  reduced  to  a  mere  skele- 
ton; and  I  am  positive  that  it  was  the  great  regularity  I 


COKNATIO.  19 

observed  for  so  many  years,  and  that  only,  which  rescued 
me  from  the  jaws  of  death.  In  all  that  time  I  never 
knew  what  sickness  was,  unless  I  may  call  by  that  name 
some  slight  indispositions  of  the  continuance  of  a  day  or 
two;  the  regular  life  I  had  led,  as  I  have  already  taken 
notice,  for  so  many  years  not  having  permitted  any  super- 
fluous or  bad  humors  to  breed  in  me;  or,  if  they  did,  to 
prevent  them  acquiring  such  strength  and  malignity  as 
they  generally  acquire  in  the  superannuated  bodies  of  those 
who  live  without  rule.  And,  as  there  was  not  any  old 
malignity  in  my  humors  (which  is  the  thing  that  kills 
people),  but  only  that  which  my  new  irregularity  had  oc- 
casioned, this  fit  of  sickness,  though  exceedingly  violent, 
had  not  strength  enough  to  destroy  me.  This  it  was,  and 
nothing  else,  that  saved  my  life;  whence  may  be  gathered 
how  great  is  the  power  and  efficacy  of  regularity;  and  how 
great  likewise  is  that  of  irregularity,  which,  in  a  few  days, 
could  bring  on  me  so  terrible  a  fit  of  sickness,  just  as 
regularity  had  preserved  me  in  health  for  so  many  years. 
By  attending  duly  to  what  I  have  said  a  man  becomes 
his  own  physician,  and,  indeed,  the  best  he  could  have, 
since  no  man  can  be  a  perfect  physician  to  any  one  but 
himself;  the  reason  of  which  is,  that  any  man  may,  by 
repeated  trials,  acquire  a  perfect  knowledge  of  his  own 
constitution,  and  the  most  hidden  qualities  of  his  body, 
and  what  wine  and  food  agree  with  his  stomach.  Now,  it 
is  so  far  from  being  an  easy  matter  to  know  these  things 
perfectly  of  another,  that  we  cannot,  without  much  trouble, 
discover  them  in  ourselves,  since  a  great  deal  of  time 
and  repeated  trials  are  requisite  for  that  purpose. 


20  CORNARO. 

These  trials  are  (if  I  may  so  express  it)  more  than 
necessary,  as  there  is  a  greater  variety  in  the  natures  and 
stomachs  of  different  men  than  in  their  persons.  Who 
could  believe  that  old  wine — wine  that  had  passed  its  first 
year — should  disagree  with  my  stomach,  and  new  wine 
agree  with  it;  and  that  pepper,  which  is  looked  upon  as 
a  warm  spice,  should  not  have  a  warm  effect  upon  me, 
insomuch  that  I  find  myself  more  warmed  and  comforted 
by  cinnamon?  Where  is  the  physician  that  could  have 
informed  me  of  these  two  latent  qualities,  since  I  myself, 
even  by  a  long  course  of  observation,  could  scarce  dis- 
cover them?  From  all  these  reasons  it  follows  that  it  is 
impossible  to  be  a  perfect  physician  to  another.  Since, 
therefore,  a  man  cannot  have  a  better  physician  than 
himself,  nor  any  physic  better  than  a  regular  life,  a  regu- 
lar life  he  ought  to  embrace. 

I  do  not,  however,  mean  that,  for  the  knowledge  and 
cure  of  such  disorders  as  often  befall  those  who  do  not 
live  regularly,  there  is  no  occasion  for  a  physician,  and 
that  his  assistance  ought  to  be  slighted.  For  if  we  are 
apt  to  receive  such  great  comfort  from  friends,  who  come 
to  visit  us  in  our  illness,  though  they  do  no  more  than 
testify  their  concern  for  us,  and  bid  us  be  of  good  cheer, 
how  much  more  regard  ought  we  to  have  for  the  physi- 
cian, who  is  a  friend  that  comes  to  see  us  in  order  to  relieve 
us,  and  promise  us  a  cure?  But  for  the  bare  purpose  of 
keeping  ourselves  in  health,  I  am  of  opinion  that  we 
should  consider  as  a  physician  this  regular  life,  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  is  our  natural  and  proper  physic,  since  it 
preserves  men,  even  those  of  a  bad  constitution,  in  health; 


CORNARO. 

makes  them  live  sound  and  hearty  to  the 
dred  and  upwards.  However,  to  confess  the  truth,  men, 
for  the  most  part,  are  very  sensual  and  intemperate,  and 
love  to  satisfy  their  appetites,  and  to  commit  every  excess; 
therefore,  seeing  that  they  cannot  avoid  being  greatly 
injured  by  such  excess  as  often  as  they  are  guilty  of  it, 
they,  by  way  of  apologizing  for  their  conduct,  say  that  it  is 
better  to  live  ten  years  less,  and  enjoy  themselves,  not  con- 
sidering of  what  importance  are  ten  years  more  of  life, 
especially  a  healthy  life,  and  at  a  maturer  age,  when  men 
become  sensible  of  their  progress  in  knowledge  and  virtue, 
which  cannot  attain  to  any  degree  of  perfection  before  this 
period  of  life. 

Thus,  I  have  assigned  my  reasons  for  abandoning  in- 
temperance, and  betaking  myself  entirely  to  a  sober  life, 
with  the  method  I  pursued  in  doing  so,  the  consequences 
resulting  from  it,  and,  finally,  the  advantages  and  bless- 
ings which  a  sober  life  confers  upon  those  who  embrace 
it.  Some  sensual,  inconsiderate  persons  affirm  that  a 
long  life  is  no  blessing,  and  that  the  state  of  a  man  who 
has  passed  his  seventy-fifth  year  cannot  really  be  called 
life,  but  death;  but  this  is  a  mistake,  as  I  shall  fully 
prove;  and  it  is  my  sincere  wish  that  all  men  would  en- 
deavor to  attain  my  age,  in  order  that  they  also  may 
enjoy  that  period  of  life  which  of  all  others  is  the  most 
desirable. 

I  will  therefore  give  an  account  of  my  recreations.  I 
mount  my  horse  without  any  assistance  or  advantage  of 
situation;  I  climb  up  hill  from  bottom  to  top,  afoot,  and 
with  the  greatest  ease  and  unconcern;  then  how  gay 


22  CORNARO. 

pleasant,  and  good-humored  I  am;  how  free  from  every 
perturbation  of  mind,  and  every  disagreeable  thought, 
in  lieu  of  which  joy  and  peace  have  so  firmly  fixed  their 
residence  in  my  bosom  as  never  to  depart  from  it. 
Many  persons  know  in  what  manner  I  pass  my  time, 
so  as  not  to  find  life  a  burden,  seeing  I  can  contrive 
to  spend  every  hour  of  it  with  the  greatest  delight 
and  pleasure,  having  frequent  opportunities  of  con- 
versing with  many  honorable  gentlemen;  men  valuable 
for  their  good  sense  and  manners,  their  acquaintance  with 
letters,  and  every  other  good  quality.  Then,  when  I  can- 
not enjoy  their  conversation,  I  betake  myself  to  the  read- 
ing of  some  good  book.  When  I  have  read  as  much  as  I 
like,  I  write,  endeavoring  in  this,  as  in  every  thing  else, 
to  be  of  service  to  others,  to  the  utmost  of  my  power. 

These  things  I  do  with  the  greatest  ease  to  myself,  at 
their  proper  seasons,  in  a  house  of  my  own,  which,  being 
situate  in  the  most  beautiful  quarter  of  Padua,  is  in  itself 
really  convenient  and  handsome,  such,  in  a  word,  as  it  is 
no  longer  the  fashion  to  build;  for,  in  one  part  of  it,  I 
can  shelter  myself  from  extreme  heat,  and,  in  the  other, 
from  extreme  cold;  having  contrived  the  apartments 
according  to  the  rules  of  architecture,  which  teach  us 
what  is  to  be  observed  in  practice.  Besides  this  house,  I 
have  my  several  gardens,  supplied  with  purling  streams, 
in  which  I  always  find  something  to  do  that  amuses  me. 

Whence  it  appears  that  the  life  I  lead  is  cheerful,  and 
not  gloomy  as  some  persons  pretend  who  know  no  better, 
to  whom,  in  order  that  it  may  appear  what  value  I  set  on 
every  other  kind  of  life,  I  must  declare  that  I  would  not 


CORNAEO.  23 

exchange  my  manner  of  living,  or  my  grey  hairs,  with 
any  of  those  young  men,  even  of  the  best  constitution, 
who  give  way  to  their  appetites. 

Besides  all  these  blessings,  I  mention  another  which 
I  enjoy,  and  so  great  a  blessing  that  I  am  ever  amazed 
at  it,  since  it  is  altogether  beside  the  usual  course 
of  nature.  This  blessing  is,  that  I  should  pass  fifty  in 
spite  of  a  most  powerful  and  mortal  enemy  I  carry  about 
me,  and  which  I  can  by  no  means  conquer,  because  it  is 
natural,  or  an  occult  quality  implanted  in  my  body  by 
nature;  and  this  is,  that  every  year,  from  the  beginning 
of  July  to  the  end  of  August,  I  cannot  drink  any  wine,  of 
whatever  kind  or  country;  for,  besides  being  these  two 
months  quite  disgustful  to  my  palate,  it  disagrees 
with  my  stomach.  Thus,  losing  my  milk  (for  wine 
is  indeed  the  milk  of  old  age),  and  having  nothing 
to  drink,  for  no  change  of  preparation  of  waters  can 
have  the  virtue  of  wine,  nor,  of  course,  do  me  any 
good;  having  nothing,  I  say,  to  drink,  and  my  stomach 
being  thereby  disordered,  I  can  eat  but  very  little, 
and  this  spare  diet,  with  the  want  of  wine,  reduces 
me  by  the  middle  of  August,  extremely  low;  nor  is  the 
capon  broth,  or  any  other  remedy,  of  service  to  me;  so 
that  I  am  ready,  through  mere  weakness,  to  sink  into  the 
grave.  Hence  I  must  infer  that  were  not  the  new  wine 
(for  I  always  take  care  to  have  some  ready  by  the  begin- 
ning of  September),  to  come  in  so  soon,  I  should  be  a 
dead  man.  But  what  is  still  more  surprising  is  that 
this  new  wine  should  have  power  sufficient  to  restore  me, 
in  two  or  three  days,  to  that  degree  of  health  and  strength 
of  which  the  old  wine  had  robbed  me. 


24  CORNARO. 


[FROM  A  LATER  TREATISE.] 

The  man  who  is  naturally  of  a  bad  constitution  may, 
by  dint  of  reason  and  a  sober  life,  live  to  a  great  age  and 
in  good  health,  as  I  have  done,  who  had  naturally  the 
worst,  so  that  it  was  impossible  I  should  live  above  forty 
years;  whereas  I  now  find  myself  sound  and  hearty  at  the 
age  of  eighty-six;  and,  were  it  not  for  the  long  and  violent 
fits  of  illness  which  I  experienced  in  my  youth,  to  such 
a  degree  that  the  physicians  gave  me  over,  and  which 
robbed  me  of  my  radical  moisture,  a  loss  absolutely  irre- 
parable, I  might  expect  to  attain  the  above-mentioned 
term  of  one  hundred.  It  is  enough  for  me  that  I  have  lived 
forty-six  years  beyond  the  term  I  had  a  right  to  expect; 
and  that  during  this  long  respite  all  my  senses  have  con- 
tinued perfect;  and  even  my  teeth,  my  voice,  my  memory, 
and  my  heart.  But  what  is  still  more,  my  brain  is  more 
itself  now  than  ever  it  was;  nor  do  any  of  these  powers 
abate  as  I  advance  in  years;  and  this  because,  as  I  grow 
older,  I  lessen  the  quantity  of  my  solid  food. 

This  retrenchment  is  necessary;  nor  can  it  be  avoided, 
since  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  to  live  forever;  and,  as 
he  draws  near  his  end,  he  is  reduced  so  low  as  to  be  no 
longer  able  to  take  any  nourishment,  unless  it  be  to  swal- 
low, and  that  with  difficulty,  the  yolk  of  an  egg  in  the 
four-and-twenty  hours,  and  thus  end  by  mere  dissolution, 
without  any  pain  or  sickness,  as  I  expect  will  be  my  case. 
This  is  a  blessing  of  great  importance,  yet  may  be  ex- 
pected by  all  those  who  shall  lead  a  sober  life,  of  what- 


COBNARO.  25 

3ver  degree  or  condition,  whether  high  or  middling  or 
low;  for  we  are  all  of  the  same  species,  and  composed  of 
the  same  four  elements.  And  since  a  long  and  healthy 
life  ought  to  be  greatly  coveted  by  every  man,  I  conclude 
that  every  man  is  bound  in  duty  to  exert  himself  to  at- 
tain longevity,  and  that  he  cannot  promise  himself  such 
a  blessing  without  temperance  and  sobriety. 

Some  allege  that  many,  without  leading  such  a  life,  have 
lived  to  a  hundred,  and  that  in  constant  health,  though 
they  ate  a  great  deal,  and  used  indiscriminately  every 
kind  of  viands  and  wine,  and  therefore  flatter  them- 
selves that  they  shall  be  equally  fortunate.  But  in  this 
they  are  guilty  of  two  mistakes;  the  first  is,  that  it  is  not 
one  in  a  hundred  thousand  that  ever  attains  that  happi- 
ness; the  other  mistake  is,  that  such,  in  the  end,  most 
assuredly  contract  some  illness,  which  carries  them  off; 
nor  can  they  ever  be  sure  of  ending  their  days  otherwise, 
so  that  the  safest  way  to  attain  a  long  and  healthy  life  is, 
at  least  after  forty,  to  embrace  sobriety.  This  is  no  such 
difficult  affair,  since  history  informs  us  of  so  many  who, 
in  former  times,  lived  with  the  greatest  temperance;  and 
I  know  that  the  present  age  furnishes  us  with  many  such 
instances,  reckoning  myself  one  of  the  number;  we  are 
all  human  beings  and  endowed  with  reason,  consequently 
we  are  masters  of  all  our  actions. 

This  sobriety  is  reduced  to  two  things,  quality  and 
quantity.  The  first,  namely,  quality,  consists  in  nothing 
but  not  eating  food,  or  drinking  wines,  prejudicial  to  the 
stomach.  The  second,  which  is  quantity,  consists  in  not 
eating  or  drinking  more  than  the  stomach  can  easily . 


26  COBNARO. 

digest;  which  quantity  and  quality  every  man  should  be 
a  perfect  judge  of,  by  the  time  he  is  forty,  or  fifty,  or 
sixty;  and  whoever  observes  these  two  rules  may  be  said 
to  live  a  regular  and  sober  life.  This  is  of  so  much  virtue 
and  efficacy,  that  the  humors  of  such  a  man's  body  be- 
come most  homogeneous,  harmonious,  and  perfect;  and, 
when  thus  improved,  are  no  longer  liable  to  be  corrupted 
or  disturbed  by  any  other  disorders  whatsoever,  such  as 
suffering  excessive  heat  or  cold,  too  much  fatigue,  want  of 
natural  rest,  and  the  like,  unless  in  the  last  degree  of  ex- 
cess. Wherefore,  since  the  humors  of  persons  who  observe 
these  two  rules  relative  to  eating  and  drinking,  cannot 
possibly  be  corrupted,  and  engender  acute  diseases,  the 
sources  of  an  untimely  death,  every  man  is  bound  to 
comply  with  them;  for  whoever  acts  otherwise,  living  a 
disorderly  instead  of  a  regular  life,  is  constantly  exposed 
to  disease  and  mortality,  as  well  in  consequence  of  such 
disorders  as  of  others  without  number,  each  of  which  is 
capable  of  producing  the  same  destructive  effect. 

It  is  indeed  true,  that  even  he  who  observes  the  two 
rules  relating  to  diet,  the  observance  of  which  constitutes 
a  sober  life,  may,  by  committing  any  one  of  the  other 
irregularities,  find  himself  the  worse  for  it  a  day  or  two; 
but  not  so  as  to  breed  a  fever.  He  may  likewise  be 
affected  by  the  revolutions  of  the  heavens;  but  neither 
the  heavens  nor  those  irregularities  are  capable  of  cor- 
rupting the  humors  of  a  temperate  person;  and  it  is  but 
reasonable  and  natural  it  should  be  so,  as  the  two  irregu- 
larities of  diet  are  interior,  and  the  others  exterior. 

But  as  there  are  some  persons,  stricken  in  years,  who 


CORNARO. 

are,  notwithstanding,  very  sensual,  and  allege  that  neither 
the  quantity  nor  the  quality  of  their  diet  makes  any  im- 
pression upon  them,  and  therefore  eat  a  great  deal  of  every 
thing,  without  distinction,  and  indulge  themselves  equally 
in  point  of  drinking,  because  they  are  insensible  in  what 
part  of  their  bodies  their  stomachs  are  situate;  such, 
no  doubt,  are  beyond  measure  sensual,  and  slaves  to  glut- 
tony. To  these  I  answer  that  what  they  say  is  impos- 
sible in  the  nature  of  things,  because  it  is  impossible  that 
every  man  who  comes  into  the  world  should  not  bring 
with  him  a  hot,  a  cold,  or  a  temperate  constitution;  and 
that  hot  foods  should  agree  with  hot  constitutions,  cold 
with  cold  ones,  and  things  that  are  not  of  a  temperate 
nature  with  temperate  ones,  is  likewise  impossible  in  na- 
ture. After  all,  these  epicures  must  allow  that  they  are 
now  and  then  out  of  order,  and  that  they  cure  themselves 
by  taking  evacuating  medicines,  and  observing  a  strict 
diet.  Whence  it  appears  that  their  being  out  of  order  is 
owing  to  their  eating  too  much,  and  of  things  disagreeing 
with  their  stomach. 

Some  say  that  it  is  necessary  they  should  eat  and  drink 
a  great  deal  to  keep  up  their  natural  heat,  which  is  con- 
stantly diminishing  as  they  advance  in  years;  and  that 
it  is  therefore  their  duty  to  eat  heartily,  and  of  such 
things  as  please  their  palate,  be  they  hot,  cold,  or  tem- 
perate; and  that  were  they  to  lead  a  sober  life  it  would 
be  a  short  one.  To  this  I  answer,  that  our  kind  mother, 
Nature,  in  order  that  old  men  may  still  live  to  a  greater 
age,  has  contrived  matters  so  that  they  should  be  able 
to  subsist  on  little,  as  I  do;  for  large  quantities  of  food 


28  CORNARO 

cannot  be  digested  by  old  and  feeble  stomachs.  Nor 
should  such  persons  be  afraid  of  shortening  their  days  by 
eating  too  little,  since,  when  they  happen  to  be  indisposed, 
they  recover  by  eating  a  mere  trifle;  for  it  is  a  trifle  they 
eat  when  confined  to  a  regimen,  by  observing  which  they 
get  rid  of  their  disorder.  Now,  if,  by  reducing  themselves 
to  a  very  small  quantity  of  food,  they  recover  from  the 
jaws  of  death,  how  can  they  doubt  but  that,  with  an  in- 
crease of  diet,  still  consistent,  however,  with  sobriety,  they 
will  be  able  to  support  nature  when  in  perfect  health? 

Others  say  that  it  is  better  for  a  man  to  suffer  every 
year  three  or  four  returns  of  his  usual  disorders,  such  as  the 
gout,  sciatica,  and  the  like,  than  be  tormented  the  whole 
year  by  not  indulging  his  appetite,  and  eating  every 
thing  his  palate  likes  best,  since,  by  a  good  regimen 
alone,  he  is  sure  to  get  the  better  of  such  attacks.  To 
this  I  answer,  that,  our  natural  heat  growing  less  and  less 
as  we  advance  in  years,  no  regimen  can  retain  virtue  suf- 
ficient to  conquer  the  malignity  with,  which  disorders 
of  repletion  are  ever  attended;  so  that  he  must  die  at  last 
of  these  periodical  disorders,  because  they  abridge  life  in 
the  same  proportion  as  health  prolongs  it. 

Others  pretend  that  it  is  much  better  to  lose  ten  years 
than  not  indulge  one's  appetite.  To  this  I  answer 
that  longevity  ought  to  be  highly  valued  by  men  of 
parts;  as  to  others,  it  is  no  great  matter  if  it  is  not  duly 
prized  by  them,  since  they  are  a  disgrace  to  mankind,  so 
that  their  death  is  rather  of  service  to  the  public.  But  it 
is  a  great  misfortune  that  men  of  bright  parts  should  be 
cut  off  in  that  manner. 


CORNARO  29 

There  are  others  who,  though  their  stomachs  become 
weaker  and  weaker  as  they  advance  in  years,  cannot, 
however,  he  brought  to  retrench  the  quantity  of  their  food; 
nay,  they  rather  increase  it.  And  because  they  find  them- 
selves unable  to  digest  the  great  quantity  of  food  with 
which  they  must  load  their  stomachs,  by  eating  twice  in 
the  four  and  twenty  hours,  they  make  a  resolution  to  eat 
but  once,  that  the  long  interval  between  one  meal  and  the 
other  may  enable  them  to  eat,  at  one  sitting,  as  much  as 
they  used  to  do  in  two;  thus  they  eat  till  their  stomachs, 
overburdened  with  much  food,  pall  and  sicken,  and 
change  the  superfluous  food  into  bad  humors,  which  kill 
a  man  before  his  time.  I  never  met  with  a  very  aged 
person  who  led  that  manner  of  life.  All  these  old  men  I 
have  been  speaking  of  would  live  long,  if,  as  they  ad- 
vanced in  years,  they  lessened  the  quantity  of  their  food, 
and  ate  oftener,  but  little  at  a  time;  for  old  stomachs  can- 
not digest  large  quantities  of  food;  old  men  changing  in 
that  respect  to  children,  who  eat  several  times  in  the  four 
and  twenty  hours. 

Others  say  that  a  sober  life  may  indeed  keep  a  man  in 
health,  but  that  it  cannot  prolong  life.  To  this  I  answer, 
that  experience  proves  the  contrary,  and  that  I  myself  am 
a  living  instance  of  it.  It  cannot,  however,  be  said  that 
sobriety  is  apt  to  shorten  one's  days  as  sickness  does;  for 
that  the  latter  abbreviates  life  is  not  to  be  doubted.  Not- 
withstanding, a  man  had  better  be  always  jocund  and 
hearty  than  be  obliged  to  submit  now  and  then  to  sick- 
ness, in  order  to  keep  up  the  radical  moisture.  Hence  it 
may  be  fairly  concluded  that  holy  sobriety  is  the  true 
parent  of  health  and  longevity. 


EXTRACT  FROM  A  LETTER 

WRITTEN   BY 

A   NUN   OF   PADUA, 

THE  GRANDDAUGHTER  OF  OORNARO. 


Cornaro  was  a  man  of  understanding,  merit,  and  cour- 
age. He  loved  glory,  and  was  naturally  liberal;  never- 
theless, without  profuseness.  His  youth  was  infirm, 
being  very  passionate  and  hasty;  but,  when  he  perceived 
what  damages  the  vices  of  his  temper  caused  him,  he 
resolved  to  correct  them,  and  had  command  enough  of 
himself  to  conquer  his  passion,  and  those  extravagant 
humors  to  which  he  was  subject.  After  this  glorious 
victory  he  became  so  moderate,  mild,  and  affable,  that 
he  gained  the  esteem  and  friendship  of  all  those  who 
knew  him. 

He  was  extraordinarily  sober,  observed  the  rules  which 
he  mentions  in  his  writings,  and  dieted  himself  always 
with  so  much  wisdom  and  precaution,  that,  finding  his 
natural  heat  decaying  by  degrees  in  his  old  age,  he  also 
diminished  his  diet  by  degrees,  so  far  as  to  stint  himself 
to  the  yolk  of  an  egg  for  a  meal,  and  sometimes,  a  little 
before  his  death,  it  served  him  for  two  meals. 

By  this  means  he  preserved  his  health,  and  was  also 
vigorous,  to  the  age  of  a  hundred  years;  his  mind  did 

30 


COENARO.  31 

not  decay,  he  never  had  need  of  spectacles,  neither  lost 
he  his  hearing. 

And  that  which  is  no  less  true  than  difficult  to  believe, 
is,  that  he  preserved  his  voice  so  clear  and  harmonious, 
that,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  he  sang  with  as  much  strength 
and  delight  as  he  did  at  the  age  of  twenty-five  years. 

He  had  foreseen  that  he  should  live  long  without  any 
infirmity,  and  was  not  deceived  in  it.  When  he  felt  that 
his  last  hour  drew  near,  he  disposed  himself  to  leave  this 
life  with  the  piety  of  a  Christian  and  the  courage  of  a 
philosopher.  He  made  his  will,  and  set  all  his  affairs  in 
order;  after  which  he  received  the  last  sacraments,  and 
expected  death  patiently  in  an  elbow-chair.  In  short,  it 
may  be  said  that,  being  in  good  health,  feeling  no  man- 
ner of  pain,  having  also  his  mind  and  eye  brisk,  a  little 
fainting  fit  took  him,  which  was  instead  of  an  agony,  and 
made  him  fetch  his  last  breath.  He  died  at  Padua  April 
26,  1566,  and  was  buried  May  8,  following. 

His  wife  died  some  years  afterwards.  Her  life  was 
long,  and  her  old  age  as  happy  as  that  of  her  spouse, 
only  her  latter  days  were  not  altogether  like  his.  Some 
time  before  her  death  she  was  seized  with  a  lingering, 
which  brought  her  to  her  grave.  She  gave  up  her  soul 
one  night  in  her  bed,  without  any  convulsive  motions 
and  with  so  perfect  a  tranquility  that  she  left  this  life 
without  being  perceived. 


A  SOCIETY  DINNER 

BY  SIR  HENRY  THOMPSON. 


Only  a  few  years  ago  excellence  in  quality  and  good 
taste  in  cuisine  were  often  sacrificed  in  the  endeavor  to 
make  a  profuse  display.  Hence  abundance  without  rea- 
son, and  combinations  without  judgment,  were  found 
co-existing  with  complete  indifference  to  comforts  in  the 
matters  of  draughts,  ventilation,  temperature,  and  con- 
sumption of  time.  Who  among  the  diners-out  of  middle 
age  has  not  encountered  many  a  time  an  entertainment 
with  some  such  programme  as  the  following — one  of  an 
order  which,  it  is  to  be  feared,  is  not  even  yet  quite 
extinct? 

"  Eighteen  or  twenty  guests  enter  a  room  adapted  at 
most  to  a  dinner  of  twelve.  It  is  lighted  with  gas;  the 
chief  available  space  being  occupied  by  the  table,  sur- 
rounding which  is  a  narrow  lane  barely  sufficing  for  the 
circulation  of  the  servants.  Directly  —  perhaps  after 
oysters — appear  turtle  soups  thick  and  clear.  A  con- 
somme is  to  be  had  on  demand,  but  so  unexpected  a 
choice  astonishes  the  servitor,  who  brings  it  after  some 
delay,  and  cold;  with  it  punch.  Following  arrive  the 
fish — salmon  and  turbot,  one  or  both,  smothered  in  thick 
lobster  sauce;  sherry.  Four  entrees  promenade  the  cir- 
cuit in  single  file,  whereof  the  first  was  always  oyster 
patties,  after  which  came  mutton  or  lamb  cutlets,  a  vol- 
au-vent,  etc.,  hock  and  champagne.  Three-quarters  of 

32 


SIB  HENRY  THOMPSON.  S3 

an  hour  at  least,  perhaps  an  hour,  having  now  elapsed, 
the  saddle  or  haunch  of  mutton  arrives,  of  which  gentle- 
men who  have  patiently  waited  get  satisfactory  slices 
and  currant  jelly,  with  cold  vegetables  or  a  heavy,  flabby 
salad.  Then  come  boiled  fowl  and  tongue,  or  a  turkey 
with  solid  force  meat,  a  slice  of  ham,  and  so  on,  up  to 
game,  followed  by  hot,  substantial  pudding;  three  or  four 
other  sweets,  including  an  iced  pudding;  wines  in  variety 
more  or  less  appropriate,  to  be  followed  by  a  pate  de  foie 
gras,  more  salad,  biscuits,  and  cheese.  Again  two  ices 
and  liqueurs.  Then  an  array  of  decanters,  arid  the  first 
appearance  of  red  wine;  a  prodigious  dessert  of  all  things 
in  and  out  of  season,  and  particularly  those  which  are 
out  of  season,  as  being  the  more  costly.  General  circu- 
lation of  waiters,  handing  each  dish  in  turn  to  every- 
body, under  a  running  fire  of  negatives,  a  ceremonial  of 
fifteen  minutes7  duration,  to  say  the  least.  Circulation 
of  decanters,  general  rustle  of  silks,  disappearance  of 
the  ladies,  and  first  change  of  seat  precisely  two  and  a 
half  hours  after  taking  it.  It  may  be  hoped  that  a 
charming  companion  on  either  side  has  beguiled  and 
shortened  a  time  which  otherwise  must  have  been  tedious. 
Now  general  closing  up  of  men  to  host,  and  reassembling 
of  decanters;  age,  quality,  and  vintage  of  wine  discussed 
during  consumption  thereof.  At  last  coffee,  which  is 
neither  black  nor  hot.  Joining  the  ladies;  music  by  the 
daughters  of  the  house;  service  of  gunpowder  tea,  fatal 
to  the  coming  night's  rest  if  taken  in  a  moment  of  forget- 
fulness;  and  carriages  announced." 


THE  ART  OF  LIVING 

BY  WILLIAM  KINNEAR. 


[From  the  North  American  Review,  June,  1893.] 

Very  few  people,  it  is  safe  to  say,  desire  old  age.  Men 
and  women  harassed  by  trouble,  or  overpowered  by  sor- 
row, surrounded  by  disgrace,  or  tortured  by  pain,  may  long 
for  death,  but  not  for  a  hundred  or  two  hundred  years  of 
human  life.  Old  age  is  of  two  kinds.  One,  the  calm 
passing  of  many  years;  the  other,  brought  about  by 
excesses  either  mental  or  physical.  The  latter  is  not 
within  the  province  of  this  brief  essay.  Without  good 
health  and  faculties,  trained  by  sobriety  and  temperance 
in  all  things,  both  of  mind  and  body,  long  life  would  be 
an  intolerable  tedium.  To  die  would  indeed  be  great 
gain  in  such  a  case.  The  possibility  of  living  two  hun- 
dred years  in  average  good  health  seems  to  many  a  wild 
sort  of  scientific  dream.  So  did  crossing  the  Atlantic  by 
steamships;  so  did  conveying  intelligence  by  electricity; 
so  did  all  the  many  startling  inventions  of  these  latter 
days.  Every  week  we  read  of  people  who  have  lived  to 
be  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  ten  years  old.  Let  us 
not  be  surprised  at  any  thing. 

We  cannot  defy  death.  But  we  may,  by  searching, 
find  certain  secrets  of  nature  and  apply  them  to  the 
renewal  of  the  organs  whose  decay  is  constantly  going  on 


34 


KlNNEAE.  35 


in  the  body.  Anatomical  experiment  and  investigation 
show  that  the  chief  characteristics  of  old  age  are  deposits 
of  earthy  matter  of  a  gelatinous  and  fibrinous  character  in 
the  human  system.  Carbonate  and  phosphate  of  lime, 
mixed  with  other  salts  of  a  calcareous  nature,  have  been 
found  to  furnish  the  greater  part  of  these  earthy  deposits. 
As  observation  shows,  man  begins  in  a  gelatinous  condi- 
tion; he  ends  in  an  osseous,  or  bony,  one — soft  in  infancy, 
hard  in  old  age.  By  gradual  change  in  the  long  space  of 
years  the  ossification  comes  on;  but,  after  middle  life  is 
passed,  a  more  marked  development  of  the  ossific  char- 
acter takes  place.  Of  course  these  earthy  deposits,  which 
affect  all  the  physical  organs,  naturally  interfere  with 
their  functions.  Partial  ossification  of  the  heart  produces 
the  imperfect  circulation  of  the  blood  which  affects  the 
aged.  When  the  arteries  are  clogged  with  calcareous 
matter  there  is  interference  with  the  circulation  upon 
which  nutrition  depends.  Without  nutrition  there  is  no 
repair  of  the  body.  Hence  in  his  work  "  The  Physiology 
of  Common  Life,"  G.  H.  Lewes  states  that  "  If  the  repair 
were  always  identical  with  the  waste  life  would  only  then 
be  terminated  by  accident,  never  by  old  age"  Both  Bichat 
and  Baillie  considered  that  the  greater  number  of  people 
past  sixty  suffer  more  or  less  from  arterial  ossification, 
which  brings  about  obstructions  in  the  proper  and  healthy 
circulation  of  the  blood. 

None  of  these  things  interferes  with  nutrition  and  cir- 
culation in  early  years.  The  reparation  of  the  physical 
system,  as  every  one  ought  to  know,  depends  on  this 


36  KlNNEAR. 

fine  balance.  In  fact,  the  whole  change  is  merely  a  slow, 
steady  accumulation  of  calcareous  deposits  in  the  system. 
The  physical  organs  cannot  preserve  the  balance  between 
waste  and  nutrition.  This  is  what  we  call  old  age.  Nutri- 
tion in  the  earlier  years  of  life  is  perfectly  performed. 
Repairs  are  at  once  promptly  attended  to  by  the  young 
blood.  To  repair  the  waste  of  the  body,  so  that  the 
exquisite  equipoise  called  perfect  health  may  be  main- 
tained, and  the  decay  and  blockage  which  advances  with 
age  may  be  kept  at  bay,  is  to  prolong  our  years.  If  this 
secret  be  known,  why  not  hundreds  of  years  of  life? 
Keep  the  means  of  repair  of  the  system  always  in  good 
working  order,  and  you  live,  according  to  nature,  in  the 
highest,  finest  sense.  Then,  what  are  the  means  of 
checking  these  osseous  and  cartilaginous  enemies  of 
life? 

The  oxygen  of  the  atmosphere  is  a  most  destructive 
element  in  many  respects.  Researches  of  a  recent  scien- 
tific character  have  shown  that  the  origin  of  one  of  the 
sources  of  old  age,  namely,  fibrinous  and  gelatinous 
matter,  can  be  traced  to  the  destructive  action  of  atmos- 
pheric oxygen.  Now,  the  relative  proportions  of  oxygen 
and  nitrogen  in  the  air  we  constantly  breathe  are  22  of 
the  former  to  78  of  the  latter.  Oxygen  is  the  more 
active,  aggressive  element  of  the  two,  though  of  much 
smaller  bulk.  For  every  other  element  except  fluorine, 
oxygen  has  an  affinity,  thus  forming  oxides.  In  the 
chemical  changes  constantly  taking  place  in  our  bodies 
oxygen  plays  the  most  important  part  by  all  odds.  By 


KlNNBAR.  37 

oxidation,  which  is  a  constant  waste  or  rust  of  life,  the 
physical  system  is  hourly  destroyed,  and  then  again  built 
up  by  the  reparation  of  the  food  we  live  upon.  Albumen 
and  fibrine  exist  in  the  blood,  and  are  resolved  into  their 
component  elements,  carbon,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  oxygen, 
sulphur,  and  phosphorus.  By  oxidation,  the  albumen  is 
converted  into  fibrine,  which  nourishes  the  organs  of  our 
bodies.  But  in  repairing  their  waste  an  excess  of  this 
substance  accumulates  in  the  blood  vessels,  causing  their 
induration,  and  thus  gradually  lessening  their  caliber. 
Gelatine  is  an  oxide  of  fibrine,  as  fibrine  is  an  oxide  of 
albumen.  Oxidation  causes  these  substances  in  part  to 
be  decomposed,  and  afterwards  eliminated  through  the 
kidneys.  A  constant  struggle  is  daily  going  on  in  our 
bodies  when  in  the  most  perfect  health  between  accumu- 
lation and  elimination.  And  these  accumulations,  becom- 
ing greater  in  old  age  than  the  power  of  elimination, 
produce  the  effects  we  term  feeling  one's  age. 

In  order  to  extend  and  prolong  life,  how  shall  they  be 
counteracted?  Let  us  see.  Seventy  per  cent  of  the 
human  body  is  water — nearly  three-fourths.  Not  a  single 
tissue  is  there  in  which  water  is  not  found  as  an  ingre- 
dient. Certain  salts  are  held  in  solution  by  this  water, 
portions  of  which — notwithstanding  the  large  quantity 
eliminated  by  the  secretions  —  become  more  or  less  de- 
posits in  the  body.  When  these  become  excessive  and 
resist  expulsion  they  then  cause  the  stiffness  and  dry- 
ness  of  old  age.  Entire  blockage  of  the  functions  of  the 
body  is  then  a  mere  matter  of  time,  and  the  refuse  matter 


38  KlNNEAR. 

deposited  by  the  blood,  in  its  constant  passage  through 
the  system,  stops  the  delicate  and  exquisite  machinery 
which  we  call  life.  This  is  death.  It  has  been  proved 
by  analysis  that  human  blood  contains  compounds  of 
lime,  magnesia,  and  iron.  In  the  blood  itself  are  thus 
contained  the  earth  salts.  In  early  life  they  are  thrown 
off.  Age  has  not  power  to  do  it. 

Hence,  as  blood  is  produced  by  assimilation  of  the  food 
we  eat,  to  this  food  we  must  look  for  the  earthy  accumu- 
lations which  in  time  block  up  the  system  and  bring  on 
old  age.  It  is  thus  seen  that  in  the  necessary  elements 
of  nutrition  lurk  the  enemies  of  life,  for  food  contains 
salts  of  a  calcareous  character.  Does  it  then  follow  that 
man,  by  careful  selection  of  his  daily  food,  may  prolong 
his  life?  In  a  measure,  yes.  Bathing,  pure  air  to  live 
and  sleep  in,  exercise,  and  other  means  of  preserving 
health,  must  be  attended  to,  of  course;  but  what  we  put 
into  our  mouths  to  make  our  blood  is  the  important  mat- 
ter either  in  retaining  health  or  prolonging  life.  Almost 
every  thing  we  eat  contains  more  or  less  of  these  elements 
for  destroying  life  by  means  of  calcareous  salts  deposited 
by  the  all-nourishing  blood.  Careful  selection,  however, 
may  enable  us  to  avoid  the  worst  of  them. 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  sound,  certain  foods  which  we 
put  into  our  mouths  to  preserve  our  lives  help  at  the 
same  time  to  hurry  us  to  the  inevitable  gate  of  the  ceme- 
tery. Earth  salts  abound  in  the  cereals,  and  bread  itself, 
though  seemingly  the  most  innocent  of  edibles,  greatly 
assists  in  the  deposition  of  calcareous  matter  in  our 


KlNNEAR.  39 

bodies.  Nitrogeneous  food  abounds  in  this  element. 
Hence,  a  diet  made  up  of  fruit  principally  is  best  for 
people  advancing  in  years,  for  the  reason  that,  being  de- 
ficient in  nitrogen,  the  ossific  deposits  so  much  to  be 
dreaded  are  more  likely  to  be  suspended.  Moderate 
eaters  have  in  all  cases  a  much  better  chance  of  long  life 
than  those  addicted  to  excesses  of  the  table.  Blockages 
of  the  functions  of  the  stomach  are  more  usual  to  those 
who  eat  more  than  the  stomach  can  utilize  than  to  light 
eaters. 

Mr.  De  Lacy  Evans,  who  made  many  careful  researches 
in  these  regions  of  science,  comes  to  the  conclusion  that 
fruits,  fish,  and  poultry,  and  young  mutton  and  veal  con- 
tain less  of  the  earthy  salts  than  other  articles  of  food, 
and  are,  therefore,  best  for  people  entering  the  vale  of 
years.  Beef  and  old  mutton  usually  are  overcharged 
with  salts  and  should  be  avoided.  If  one  desires  to  pro- 
long life,  therefore,  it  seems  that  moderate  eating  and  a 
diet  containing  a  minimum  amount  of  earthy  particles 
is  most  suitable  to  retard  old  age  by  preserving  the  sys- 
tem from  functional  blockages.  Excessive  action  of  at- 
mospheric oxygen  must  be  counteracted.  Ossific  'matter 
deposited  in  the  body  must  be  dissolved  as  far  as  prac- 
ticable. To  produce  the  desired  effect  distilled  water  and 
diluted  phosphoric  acid  are  perhaps  the  most  efficacious 
and  the  least  harmless.  Their  combined  chemical  action 
retards  old  age. 

The  powerful  solvent  properties  of  distilled  water  are 
well  known.  As  carbonate  of  lime  exists  in  nearly  all 


40  KlNNEAR. 

drinking  water  the  careful  distillation  eliminates  this 
harmful  element.  As  a  beverage  distilled  water  is 
rapidly  absorbed  into  the  blood;  it  keeps  soluble  those 
salts  already  in  the  blood  and  facilitates  their  excretion, 
thus  preventing  their  undue  deposit.  The  daily  use  of 
distilled  water  is,  after  middle  life,  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant means  of  preventing  secretions  and  the  derange- 
ment of  health.  As  to  diluted  phosphoric  acid,  it  is  one 
of  the  most  powerful  influences  known  to  science  for 
shielding  the  human  system  from  the  inconveniences  of 
old  age.  Daily  use  of  it  mixed  with  distilled  water  helps 
to  retard  the  approach  of  senility.  By  its  affinity  for 
oxygen  the  fibrinous  and  gelatinous  deposits  previously 
alluded  to  are  checked,  and  their  expulsion  from  the  sys- 
tem hastened.  Waste  of  the  tissues  is  believed  to  be  pre- 
ventable also  by  the  use  of  hypophosphites. 

Hence,  to  sum  up:  The  most  rational  modes  of  keep- 
ing physical  decay  or  deterioration  at  bay,  and  thus  re- 
tarding the  approach  of  old  age,  are  avoiding  all  foods 
rich  in  the  earth  salts,  using  much  fruit,  especially  juicy, 
uncooked  apples,  and  by  taking  daily  two  or  three  tum- 
blerfuls  of  distilled  water  with  about  ten  or  fifteen  drops 
of  diluted  phosphoric  acid  in  each  glassful. 

As  some  objector  may  say,  "  I  would  not  take  all  this 
minute  and  daily  trouble  to  live  200  years — better  a  short 
life  and  a  merry  one."  I  will  only  answer,  Take  your 
choice. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   THE   ESSAYS   OF 

S.  ROWBOTHAM. 


We  have  seen  that  a  process  of  consolidation  begins" 
at  the  earliest  period  of  existence,  and  continues  without 
interruption  until  the  body  is  changed  from  a  compara- 
tively fluid,  elastic,  and  energetic  state,  to  a  solid, 
earthy,  rigid,  inactive  condition,  which  terminates  in 
death  —  that  infancy,  childhood,  youth,  manhood,  old 
age,  and  decrepitude  are  but  so  many  different  condi- 
tions of  the  body  or  stages  of  the  process  of  consolida- 
tion or  ossification — that  the  only  difference  in  the  body 
between  old  age  and  youth  is  the  greater  density,  tough- 
ness, and  rigidity,  and  the  greater  proportion  of  calcare- 
ous earthy  matter  which  enters  into  its  composition. 
The  question  now  arises,  What  is  the  source  of  the  cal- 
careous earthy  matter  which  thus  accumulates  in  the 
system  ?  It  seems  to  be  regarded  as  an  axiom  that  all 
the  solids  of  the  body  are  continually  built  up  and  re- 
newed from  the  blood.  If  so,  every  thing  which  these 
solids  contain  is  derived  from  the  blood;  the  solids  con- 
tain phosphates  and  carbonate  of  lime,  which  are  there- 
fore derived  from  the  blood,  in  which,  as  already  shown, 
these  earthy  substances  are  invariably  found  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  The  blood  is  renewed  from  the  chyle; 
which  is  always  found  upon  analysis  to  contain  the  same 

41 


42  S.    ROWBOTHAM. 

earthy  substances  as  the  blood  and  the  solids.  The 
chyle  is  renewed  from  chyme,  and  ultimately  from  the 
food  and  drink.  The  food  and  drink,  then,  which  nour- 
ish the  system,  must,  at  the  same  time,  be  the  primary 
source  of  the  calcareous  earthy  matter  which  enters  into 
the  composition  of  the  chyme,  the  chyle,  and  the  blood; 
and  which  is  ultimately  deposited  in  all  the  tissues, 
membranes,  vessels,  and  solids  of  the  body — producing 
old  age,  decrepitude,  and  natural  death. 

Common  table  salt,  which  is  used  in  the  preparation 
of  almost  every  kind  of  food,  and  along  with  many  of  our 
meals,  contains  a  fearfully  large  amount  of  calcareous 
earthy  matter;  and  is  productive  of  very  great  mischief 
to  the  animal  economy. 

Many  elaborate  articles  have  been  written,  and  some 
by  very  learned  philosophers,  to  account  for  the  declared 
absolute  necessity  for  the  use  of  salt  in  carrying  on  the 
general  functions  of  the  body.  But  this  supposed  neces- 
sity for  the  use  of  salt  is  merely  an  opinion  derived  from 
some  of  the  many  theories  held  in  the  present  day  to 
account  for  the  different  phenomena  connected  with 
organization  and  life.  There  is  no  foundation  in  fact 
for  such  an  opinion.  Whole  tribes  and  nations  of  power- 
ful, active  persons  are  known  to  have  subsisted  without 
even  the  knowledge  of  salt.  The  author  of  these  re- 
marks and  several  of  his  friends  have  lived  without  salt 
more  than  two  years  without  any  injurious  consequences, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  with  considerable  advantage.  There 
cannot  be  a  doubt  that  if  persons  who  have  been  in  the 


S.    ROWBOTHAM.  43 

habit  of  consuming  salt  freely  should  suddenly  abandon 
its  use,  much  evil  might  arise,  just  as  it  might  by  any 
other  change  of  habits;  but  if  the  change  is  made  by 
degrees,  and  the  old  articles  of  diet  gradually  removed 
by  the  substitution  of  new  ones,  such  changes  may  be 
wrought  in  the  body  without  injury  as  would  appear  at 
first  sight  incredible. 

Bread  (from  wheaten  flour),  when  considered  in  refer- 
ence to  the  amount  of  nutritious  matter  it  contains,  may 
with  justice  be  called  the  staff  of  life;  but  in  regard  to  the 
amount  of  earthy  matter,  we  may  with  equal  justice  pro- 
nounce it  the  u  staff  of  death." 

Spring  water  contains  an  amount  of  earthy  ingredients 
which  is  fearful  to  contemplate.  It  certainly  differs  very 
much  in  different  districts  and  at  various  depths;  but  it 
has  been  calculated  that  water  of  an  average  quality  con- 
tains so  much  carbonate  and  other  compounds  of  lime 
that  a  person  drinking  an  average  quantity  each  day 
will,  in  forty  years,  have  taken  as  much  into  the  body  as 
would  form  a  pillar  of  solid  chalk  or  marble  as  large  as  a 
good-sized  man.  So  great  is  the  amount  of  lime  in  spring 
water  that  the  quantity  taken  daily  would  alone  be  suffi- 
cient to  choke  up  the  system,  so  as  to  bring  on  decrepi- 
tude and  death  long  before  we  arrived  at  twenty  years  of 
age  were  it  not  for  the  kidneys  and  other  secreting  organs 
throwing  it  off  in  considerable  quantities.  These  organs, 
however,  only  discharge  a  portion  of  this  matter;  for  in- 
stance, supposing  ten  parts  to  be  taken  during  a  day,  eight 
or  nine  may  be  thrown  out,  and  one  or  two  lost  somewhere 


44  S.    ROWBOTHAM. 

in  the  body.  This  process  continuing  day  after  day  and 
year  after  year,  the  solid  matter  at  length  accumulates, 
until  the  activity  and  flexibility  of  childhood  become  lost 
in  the  enfeebled  rigidity  of  what  is  then  called,  though 
very  erroneously,  uold  age."  A  familiar  instance  of 
earthy  deposition  and  incrustation  from  water  is  observed 
in  a  common  tea-kettle  or  steam  boiler.  Every  house- 
wife knows  that  a  vessel  which  is  in  constant  use  will 
soon  become  u  furred  up"  or  plastered  on  the  bottom  and 
sides  with  a  hard,  stony  substance.  Four  and  five 
pounds  weight  of  this  matter  have  been  known  to  col- 
lect in  twelve  months.  The  reader  must  not  mislead 
himself  by  thinking  that  because  so  much  lime  is 
found  in  a  tea-kettle,  the  water,  after  boiling,  is  there- 
fore free  from  lime.  It  is  true,  boiling  water  does  cause 
a  little  carbonate  of  lime  to  precipitate,  but  the  bulk  of 
the  sediment  is  left  from  that  portion  of  the  water  only 
which  is  driven  off  as  steam,  or  boiled  away.  This  can 
easily  be  ascertained  by  testing  the  water  both  before  and 
after  boiling.  It  will  be  found  to  contain  earthy  particles, 
however  long  the  boiling  may  continue.  Filtering  it  is 
also  of  no  use;  for  this  only  removes  what  may  be  float- 
ing or  mechanically  mixed  in  the  water;  whereas  the 
earthy  matter  here  spoken  of  is  held  in  solution.  So  that 
spring  water,  clear  and  transparent  as  it  may  appear,  is 
nevertheless  charged  with  a  considerable  amount  of  solid 
choking-up  matter,  and  is  therefore  in  any  form  unfit,  or 
at  least  is  not  the  best  suited  for  internal  use.  The  only 
means  whereby  it  can  be  rendered  perfectly  pure  and  fit 


S.   ROWBOTHJLM.  45 

for  unlimited  consumption  is  distillation.  A  very  simple 
apparatus  might  be  attached  to  a  kitchen  fire  so  as  to  be 
of  very  little  trouble,  and  yet  to  gradually  distill  as  much 
water  as  would  be  required  for  a  family.  There  cannot 
be  a  doubt  that  distilling  the  water  intended  for  tea, 
coffee,  soup,  and  other  internal  purposes,  even  without 
any  other  change  in  diet,  would  diminish  disease  and 
add  many  years  to  our  existence. 

These  facts,  and  many  others  which  could  be  advanced, 
all  tend  to  support  and  prove  the  position,  that  the  food 
and  drink  alone  are  the  source  of  the  calcareous  earthy 
matter  which  is  gradually  deposited  in  the  body,  and 
which  by  degrees  brings  on  a  state  of  induration,  rigidity, 
and  consequent  decrepitude,  which  ends  in  a  total  cessa- 
tion of  consciousness  or  death.  We  have  seen  that  differ- 
ent kinds  of  food  and  drink  contain  these  earthy  elements 
in  different  proportions,  and  we  cannot  avoid  the  conclu- 
sion, that  the  more  we  subsist  upon  such  articles  as  con- 
tain the  largest  amount,  the  sooner  shall  we  choke  up  and 
die;  and  the  more  we  live  upon  such  substances  as  are 
comparatively  free,  the  longer  will  health,  activity,  and 
life  continue. 


EXTRACTS  FKOM 

DR.  DE  LACY  EVANS 

IN    "HOW   TO   PROLONG    LIFE." 


What  is  man  without  health,  even  if  endowed  with 
riches?  Take  away  the  latter  and  their  accompanying 
luxuries — only  give  him  health;  this  accomplished,  the 
first  desire  is  a  return  of  the  riches.  But  with  both  a 
word  remains  which  we  hate  to  utter,  a  thought  we 
dread  to  contemplate,  a  thing  which  gives  sorrow,  pain, 
and  grief.  That  word,  that  thought,  that  thing,  is 
Death.  Even  in  cases  where  life  appears  a  burden,  how 
tenaciously  do  men  cling  to  it !  How  the  spirit  recoils 
from  a  struggle  with  Death !  How  fondly  it  retains  its 
grasp  of  life !  Man's  great  desire  is  for  health  and  long 
life  on  earth;  to  this  there  are  but  some  few  exceptions — 
the  result  of  incidental  impressions.  "Man  clings  to  the 
world  as  his  home,  and  would  fain  live  here  forever." 

It  has  long  been  the  opinion  of  scientific  men  that 
by  a  suitable  life  and  regularity  the  blessings  of  life  may 
be  enjoyed  in  fair  health  to  a  "  green  old  age."  The  pur- 
pose of  this  work  is  to  show  that  we  may  for  a  time  curb 
the  causes  which  are  visible  in  effect  as  age  advances, 
and  thus  prolong  life;  and  further,  that  by  other  means, 

46 


DE  LACY  EVANS.  47 

founded  upon  simple  facts,  we  may  accomplish  this  for  a 
lengthened  period. 

In  "  old  age"  the  body  differs  materially  from  youth, 
in  action,  sensibility,  function,  and  composition.  The 
active,  fluid,  sensitive,  and  elastic  body  of  youth  gradu- 
ally gives  place  to  induration,  rigidity,  and  decrepitude, 
which  terminate  in  "natural  death."  In  nature  there 
are  distinct  reasons  for  every  change,  for  development, 
growth,  decomposition,  and  death.  If,  with  our  minds 
free  from  theory,  and  unbiased  by  hypotheses,  we  ask 
nature  the  cause  of  these  changes,  she  will  surely  answer 
us.  Let  us  ask  her  the  cause  of  these  differences  between 
youth  and  old  age — why  the  various  functions  of  the 
body  gradually  cease;  why  we  become  "old"  and  die. 
The  most  marked  feature  in  old  age  is  that  a  fibrinous, 
gelatinous,  and  earthy  deposit  has  taken  place  in  the 
system;  the  latter  being  composed  chiefly  of  phosphate 
and  carbonate  of  lime,  with  small  quantities  of  sulphate 
of  lime,  magnesia,  and  traces  of  other  earths. 

Among  physiologists  and  medical  philosophers  gener- 
ally, the  idea  prevails  that  the  "ossification"  (or the  grad- 
ual accumulation  of  earthy  salts  in  the  system)  which 
characterizes  "  natural  death  "  is  the  result  of  "old  age," 
but  investigation  shows  that  such  an  explanation  is  un- 
satisfactory. For,  in  the  first  place,  if  "  old  age"  (which 
is  really  the  number  of  years  a  person  has  lived )  is  the 
cause  of  the  ossification  which  accompanies  it,  then,  if 
"like  causes  produce  like  effects,"  all  of  the  same  age 
should  be  found  in  the  same  state  of  ossification;  but 


48  DE  LACY  EVANS. 

investigation  proves  beyond  all  doubt  that  such  is  not  the 
case.  How  common  it  is  to  see  individuals  about  fifty  years 
old  as  aged  and  decrepit  as  others  at  seventy  or  eighty ! 

We  now  come  to  the  most  important  change  of  all 
which  fully  accounts  for  the  many  differences  in  the 
brain  existing  between  youth  and  old  age,  that  is,  the 
changes  in  the  blooc  vessels  supplying  it.  The  arteries 
in  old  age  become  thickened  and  lessened  in  caliber 
from  fibrinous,  gelatinous,  and  earthy  deposits.  This  is 
more  easily  detected  in  the  larger  vessels;  but  all,  even 
to  the  most  minute  subdivisions,  undergo  the  same  grad- 
ual change.  Thus,  the  supply  of  blood  to  the  brain  be- 
comes less  and  less;  henco  the  diminution  in  size  of  the 
organ  from  the  prime  of  life  to  old  age;  hence  the  func- 
tions of  the  brain  become  gradually  impaired;  the  vigor- 
ous brain  of  middle  life  gradually  giving  place  to  loss  of 
memory,  confusion  of  ideas,  inability  to  follow  a  long 
current  of  thought,  notions  oblivious  of  the  past,  and 
regardless  as  to  the  future,  carelessness  of  momentary 
impressions,  softening  of  the  brain,  and  that  imbecility  so 
characteristic  of  extreme  age. 

Copland,  Hooper,  M.  Rayer,  M.  Cruveilheir,  M.  Rostan, 
M.  Recamier,  and  others  show  that  ossification  and  thick- 
ening of  the  arteries  of  the  brain  has  not  been  overlooked, 
but  that  it  is  a  fact  which  has  been  known  for  many 
years;  also,  that  this  gradual  process  of  ossification  is  not 
due  to  any  inflammatory  action.  And  we  shall  show  that 
this  earthy  matter  has  been  deposited  from  the  blood,  and 
increases  year  by  year  with  old  age,  thus  lessening  the 


DE  LACY  EVANS.  49 

caliber  of  the  larger  vessels  partially,  and  in  some  cases 
fully,  "  clogging  up"  the  capillaries,  gradually  diminishing 
the  supply  of  blood  to  the  brain,  causing  its  diminution  in 
size  in  old  age,  and  fully  accounting  for  the  gradual  loss 
of  the  mental  capabilities  before  enumerated, 

As  age  advances,  the  energies  of  the  ganglial  system  de- 
cline; digestion,  circulation,  and  the  secretory  functions 
are  lessened;  the  ganglia  diminish  in  size,  become  firmer, 
and  of  a  deeper  hue.  In  old  age  the  nerves  become 
tougher  and  firmer,  the  medullary  substance  diminishes, 
and  their  blood-vessels  lessen  in  caliber.  The  sensibility 
of  the  whole  cerebro-spinal  system  decreases,  hence  dimi- 
nution of  the  intellectual  powers,  lessened  activity  and 
strength  in  the  organs  of  locomotion  in  advanced  age. 


In  the  foregoing  pages  we  have  pointed  out  the  differ- 
ences existing  between  youth  and  old  age.  In  the  former 
the  various  organs  and  structures  are  elastic,  yielding, 
and  pliable;  the  senses  are  keen,  the  mind  active.  In 
the  latter  these  qualities  are  usurped  by  hardness,  rigid- 
ity, and  ossification;  the  senses  are  wanting  in  suscepti- 
bility, the  mind  in  memory  and  capacity. 

Further,  that  these  changes  are  due,  firstly,  to  a  grad- 
ual accumulation  of  fibrinous  and  gelatinous  substances; 
secondly,  to  a  gradual  deposition  of  earthy  compounds, 
chiefly  phosphate  and  carbonate  of  lime.  These,  acting 
in  concert,  diminish  the  caliber  of  the  larger  arterial 
vessels,  and  by  degrees  partially,  and  sometimes  fully, 


50  DE  LACY  EVANS. 

obliterate  the  capillaries.  By  these  depositions  every 
organ  and  structure  in  the  system  is  altered  in  density 
and  function;  the  fluid,  elastic,  pliable,  and  active  state 
of  body  gives  place  to  a  solid,  inactive,  rigid,  ossified, 
and  decrepit  condition.  The  whole  system  is  "  choked 
up";  the  curtain  falls,  the  play  of  life  is  ended,  termi- 
nating in  so-called  "  natural  death." 

The  general  impression  is  that  this  accumulation  of 
fibrinous,  gelatinous,  and  osseous  matter  is  the  result  of 
old  age — the  result  of  time,  the  remote  effects  of  the  fail- 
ure of  that  mysterious  animal  principle,  life. 

We  will  now  inquire  into  the  source  of  these  deposi- 
tions, which  gradually  accumulate  from  the  first  period 
of  existence  to  old  age. 

As  the  blood  is  built  up  from  the  chyle  (which  is  formed 
from  the  chyme  by  the  action  of  the  bile  and  pancreatic 
fluid),  we  should  expect  to  find  in  the  latter  the  same  cal- 
careous matter;  and  such  is  the  fact,  that,  on  analysis,  we 
find  the  same  earthy  salts  in  the  chyle  as  exist  in  the 
blood.  As  the  chyle  is  formed  from  the  chyme  (which  is 
the  product  of  action  of  the  stomach  and  its  secretions 
on  food),  we  should  in  it  find  the  same  calcareous  matter; 
and  such,  again,  is  the  fact.  But  as  the  chyme  is  the 
product  of  digestion,  we  expect  to  find  the  same  calcare- 
ous matter  in  the  contents  of  the  stomach;  and  such  also 
is  the  fact.  The  contents  of  the  stomach  consist  of  food 
and  drink  taken  to  nourish  and  support  the  system,  and 
in  that  food  and  drink  we  ought  to  find  the  same  calcare- 
ous substances;  and  chemical  analysis  gives  to  us  the 


DE  LACY  EVANS. 


certain  answer,  that  the  food  and  drink  taken  to  support 
the  system  contains,  besides  the  elements  of  nutrition, 
earthy  salts,  which  are  the  cause  of  ossification,  obstruc- 
tion, old  age,  and  natural  death. 

We  have  now  traced  these  earthy  compounds  which 
are  found  in  the  system,  and  which  increase  as  age 
advances,  to  the  blood,  from  which  they  are,  by  the  pro- 
cess of  transpiration,  gradually  deposited.  From  the 
blood  we  trace  them  to  the  chyle,  from  the  chyle  to  the 
chyme,  and  from  the  chyme  to  the  contents  of  the  stom- 
ach, and  thence  to  articles  of  diet.  Thus  we  eat  to  live, 
and  eat  to  die. 

As  we  have  traced  these  earthy  salts  to  our  food  or 
articles  of  diet,  we  naturally  inquire  whether  the  differ- 
ent kinds  of  food  and  drink  which  we  have  for  our  selec- 
tion contain  the  same  proportion  of  ossifying  and  "  old 
age"  producing  matter.  Here  chemical  analysis  answers 
in  the  negative!  Some  of  the  most  generally  used  ali- 
mentary substances  contain  a  comparatively  large  pro- 
portion of  earthy  compounds,  some  a  moderate,  and  others 
a  very  small  amount. 

If  we  eat  vegetable  food,  plants  derive  their  earthy 
salts  from  the  earth  in  which  they  grow.  If  animal  flesh 
be  our  sustenance,  they  have  the  same  source,  through 
the  medium  of  the  animal  we  eat,  which  derives  its  sup- 
ply from  vegetation.  Fish  in  the  sea,  fowls  in  the  air, 
animals  upon  the  earth,  all  derive  the  earthy  salts  con- 
tained in  them  originally  from  the  earth,  in  the  food  on 
which  they  live. 

From  this  it  follows,  that  if  we  can  so  regulate  our  diet 


52  DE  LACY  EVANS. 

— food  and  drink — that  the  amount  of  earthy  matter  taken 
into  the  system  be  sufficient  only  for  the  growth  and 
nourishment  of  the  bones,  without  which  our  powers  of 
strength  and  motion  would  be  useless  (the  body  being 
deprived  of  its  mechanical  levers),  the  many  organs  and 
structures  would  not,  and  could  not,  harden  and  ossify; 
the  arteries  would  not  become  indurated  and  lessened  in 
caliber,  the  capillaries  would  not  become  obliterated,  the 
brain  would  not  decrease  in  size  by  age,  sight  would  not 
fail,  hearing,  taste,  and  smell  would  not  lose  their  sus- 
ceptibility, hair  would  not  turn  grey,  the  skin  would  not 
become  dry  and  wrinkled,  the  body  would  retain  its 
fluidity,  elasticity,  and  activity,  and  the  brain  its  mental 
capabilities.  If  we  can  so  regulate  our  diet  that  these 
earthy  compounds  are  taken  into  the  system  in  smaller 
quantities,  and  therefore  take  a  longer  period  to  accumu- 
late— if  we  can  even  partially  accomplish  this — we  can 
prolong  life  I 

We  have  shown  "  old  age"  and  "  natural  death  "  to  be 
due  to  two  causes— firstly,  to  the  action  of  atmospheric 
oxygen,  which  consumes  our  bodies,  and  causes  fibrinous 
and  gelatinous  accumulations;  secondly,  to  a  deposition 
of  earthy  matter  (ossification).  If,  therefore,  we  can,  by 
artificial  means,  partially  arrest  the  never-ceasing  action 
of  atmospheric  oxygen,  and  at  the  same  time  prevent  the 
accumulations  of  these  earthy  compounds,  or  even  re- 
move them  from  the  system — that  state  of  body  termed 
"  old  age"  would  be  deferred,  and  life  would  be  prolonged 
for  a  lengthened  period! 

Liebig  says:   "Many  of  the  fundamental  or  leading 


DE  LACY  EVANS.  53 

ideas  of  the  present  time  appear,  to  him  who  knows  not 
what  science  has  already  achieved,  as  extravagant  as  the 
notions  of  the  alchemists." 

Who  can  deny  that,  with  all  our  knowledge  and  dis- 
coveries, which  are  daily  increasing,  man  may  not  again 
re-discover  the  secret  of  long  life,  which  has  been  lost  for 
so  many  ages,  and  which  secret  may  probably  be  summed 
up  in  the  following  few  words: 

If  a  human  being  subsists  upon  food  which  contains  a 
large  proportion  of  lime,  a  large  proportion  will  enter  into 
the  composition  of  the  chyme,  the  chyle,  and  the  blood; 
and  as  from  the  blood  the  deposition  of  lime  takes 
place,  the  greater  the  amount  of  lime  that  blood  contains, 
the  greater  will  be  the  amount  deposited  in  the  system, 
the  greater  the  degree  of  ossification,  and  the  sooner 
will  be  produced  that  rigidity,  inactivity,  and  decrepi- 
tude which  make  him  old  and  bring  him  to  premature 
death. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  food  and  drink  taken  to 
nourish  and  support  the  body  are  selected  from  the  arti- 
cles which  contain  the  least  amount  of  lime,  the  least 
amount  will  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  chyme, 
the  chyle,  and  the  blood,  the  less  amount  will  there  be 
to  deposit,  the  less  degree  of  ossification,  the  less  the 
rigidity,  inactivity,  and  decrepitude,  and  the  longer  the 
life  of  the  man! 

We  can  stunt  the  growth  of  the  lower  animals  by  giv- 
ing them  an  excess  of  earthy  matter;  we  can  ossify  them, 
make  them  permanently  old,  and  shorten  their  days,  by 


54  DE  LACY  EVANS. 

the  same.  In  human  beings  we  need  not  look  further 
than  the  Cretins  found  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps,  Pyre- 
nees, and  other  regions.  Although  cretinism  has  two 
distinct  causes,  the  first  and  most  important  is  that  an 
excess  of  earthy  matter — lime  or  magnesian  lime — is 
taken  into  the  system  in  solution  in  water  used  for  drink- 
ing purposes.  Hereditary  it  must  be  to  children  born  of 
parents  suffering  from  this  disease,  if  not  removed  from 
the  cause;  but  sound,  healthy  children  brought  into  dis- 
tricts where  cretinism  exists  are,  at  an  early  age,  equally 
subject  to  the  disease  with  children  born  in  them. 

Now,  these  beings  are,  in  their  infancy,  literally  prema- 
turely ossified,  the  development  of  the  bones  is  arrested, 
the  height  being  seldom  more  than  four  and  a  half  feet. 
The  bones  of  the  cranium,  which  in  a  natural  state  should 
expand  to  allow  the  brain  to  grow  and  develop,  at  an 
early  age  become  thickened,  hardened,  and  ossified  to 
such  an  extent  that  expansion  is  impossible;  the  brain, 
therefore,  cannot  develop;  it  is  gradually  deprived  of  its 
blood  supply  from  below;  it  is  incased  and  imprisoned 
by  its  own  shield;  its  intellectual  part  cannot  develop; 
the  being  is  subservient  to  the  animal  portion;  he  be- 
comes voracious  and  lascivious,  and  in  many  cases  sinks 
in  intelligence  below  the  level  of  many  of  the  brutes. 
The  age  of  Cretins  is  short;  few  of  them  reach  thirty 
years,  and,  as  Clayton  remarks,  "  although  they  die  early, 
they  soon  present  the  appearance  of  age."  This  miser- 
able state  of  existence  is  due,  to  a  great  extent,  to  prema- 
ture ossification. 


DE  LACY  EVANS.  55 

Distilled  water,  used  as  a  drink,  is  absorbed  directly 
into  the  blood,  the  solvent  properties  of  which  it  increases 
to  an  extent  that  will  keep  salts  already  existing  in  the 
blood  in  solution,  prevent  their  undue  deposition  in  the 
various  organs  and  structures,  and  favor  their  elimina- 
tion by  the  different  excreta.  If  the  same  be  taken  in 
large  quantities,  or  if  it  be  the  only  liquid  taken  into  the 
system,  either  as  a  drink,  or  as  a  medium  for  the  ordi- 
nary decoctions  of  tea,  coffee,  etc.,  it  will  in  time  tend  to 
remove  those  earthy  compounds  which  have  accumulated 
in  the  system,  the  effects  of  which  usually  become  more 
manifest  as  the  age  of  forty  or  fifty  years  is  attained. 
The  daily  use  of  distilled  water  facilitates  the  removal  of 
deleterious  compounds  from  the  body  by  means  of  the 
excreta,  and  therefore  tends  to  the  prolongation  of  ex- 
istence. The  use  of  distilled  water  may  be  especially 
recommended  after  the  age  of  thirty-five  or  forty  years 
is  attained;  it  will  of  itself  prevent  many  diseases  to 
which  mankind  is  especially  subject  after  this  age;  and 
were  it  generally  used,  gravel,  stone  in  the  bladder,  and 
other  diseases  due  to  the  formation  of  calculi  in  different 
parts  of  the  system,  would  be  much  more  uncommon. 

The  beneficial  effects  of  fruit  as  an  article  of  diet,  both 
in  health  and  disease,  cannot  be  overrated.  In  health 
the  apple,  the  pear,  the  grape,  the  strawberry,  the  goose- 
berry, the  tomato,  the  fig,  the  date,  wall-fruits,  the  melon, 
and  numerous  others,  present  such  a  field  for  choice  that 
the  most  capricious  appetite  need  never  be  disappointed. 


EXPERIENCES   OF 

DE.  WINCKLEB  (ALANTJS). 


Degeneration  of  the  arteries  is  a  prime  source  for  dis- 
eases and  the  weakening  and  shortening  of  human  life. 
The  inner  lining  of  the  arteries  is  enlarged,  incrusted,  and 
hardened,  the  size  of  the  tube  is  lessened,  a  smaller  quan- 
tity of  the  blood  is  carried  to  the  tissues;  this  in  its  turn 
results  in  inadequate  nutrition,  and  this  again  in  weak- 
ness and  decrepitude. 

Under  the  name  of  Dr.  Alanlis  a  German  physician, 
Dr.  Winckler,  contributed  an  account  of  his  experience 
and  investigations  to  the  New  York  Medical  Record,  from 
which  the  following  is  taken: 

"  Having  lived  for  a  long  time  as  a  vegetarian  without 
feeling  any  better  or  worse  than  formerly  with  mixed  food, 
I  made  one  day  the  disagreeable  discovery  that  my  arte- 
ries began  to  show  signs  of  atheromatous  degeneration 
(chalky  degeneration);  particularly  in  the  temporal  and 
radial  arteries  this  morbid  process  was  unmistakable. 
Being  still  under  forty  I  could  not  interpret  this  symptom 
as  a  manifestation  of  old  age,  and  being,  furthermore,  not 
addicted  to  drink,  I  was  utterly  unable  to  explain  the 
matter.  I  turned  it  over  and  over  in  my  mind  without 
finding  a  solution  of  the  enigma.  I,  however,  found  the 
explanation  quite  accidentally  in  a  work  of  that  excel- 
lent physician,  Dr.  G.  Monin,  of  Paris.  The  following 

56 


DR.  WINCKLER  (ALANUS).  57 

is  the  verbal  translation  of  the  passage  in  question:  'In 
order  to  continue  the  criticism  of  vegetarianism  we  must 
not  ignore  the  work  of  the  talented  Doctor  Gubler,  on 
the  influence  of  a  vegetable  diet  on  a  chalky  degenera- 
tion of  the  arteries.  Vegetable  food,  richer  in  mineral 
salts  than  that  of  animal  origin,  introduces  more  mineral 
salts  into  the  blood.  Raymond  has  observed  numer- 
ous cases  of  atheroma  (chalky  deposit)  in  a  monastery 
of  vegetarian  friars,  among  others  that  of  a  prior,  a  man 
scarcely  thirty-two  years  old,  whose  arteries  were  consid- 
erably hardened.  The  naval  surgeon  Freille  has  seen 
numerous  cases  of  atheromatous  degeneration  in  Bombay 
and  Calcutta,  where  many  people  live  exclusively  on  rice. 
A  vegetable  diet,  therefore,  ruins  the  blood-vessels,  and 
makes  one  prematurely  old,  if  it  is  true  that  man  is  as  old 
as  his  arteries. 

"  Having  unfortunately  seen  these  newest  results  of 
medical  investigation  confirmed  in  my  own  case,  I  have, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  returned  to  a  mixed  diet.  I  can 
no  longer  consider  a  purely  vegetable  diet  as  the  normal 
diet  of  man,  but  only  as  a  curative  method,  which  is  of 
the  greatest  service  in  various  morbid  states.  Some  pa- 
tients may  follow  this  diet  for  weeks  and  months,  but 
it  is  not  adapted  for  everybody's  continued  use.  It  is 
the  same  as  with  the  starvation  cure,  which  cures  some 
patients,  but  it  is  not  fit  to  be  used  continually  by  the 
healthy.  I  have  become  richer  by  my  experience,  which 
has  shown  me  that  a  single  brutal  fact  can  knock  down 
the  most  beautiful  theoretical  structure." 


M.  GTJBLER 

ON  ARTERIAL  DEGENERATION. 


The  following  is  from  an  essay  on  Cretaceous  Degener- 
ation of  the  Arteries,  by  Monsieur  Gubler,  Professor  of 
Therapeutics,  Paris  College  of  Surgeons,  published  in  the 
Annales  ft  Hygiene,  Paris,  1877  (2d  Ser.,  Vol.  48): 

"As  age  progresses,  and  under  the  influence  of  con- 
ditions still  imperfectly  determined,  the  inner  wall  of  the 
arteries,  supple  and  elastic  in  its  normal  state,  thickens 
gradually,  and  becomes  indurated  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  offer,  to  the  exploring  finger,  similar  resistance  to  that 
of  a  bird's  feather  or  the  windpipe  of  a  chicken,  accord- 
ing as  the  degeneration  is  uniform  or  disposed  in  circular 
zones  alternately  with  rings  relatively  healthy. 

"  By  anatomic  examination  it  is  found  that  the  thicken- 
ing and  induration  of  the  vascular  membrane  is  due  to 
the  accumulation  of  a  whitey  yellow  granulous  and  fatty 
substance,  but  essentially  of  mineral  composition,  the 
greater  part  of  which  is  represented  by  the  carbonates 
and  earthy  phosphates. 

"  This  degeneration  spares  no  one  and  affects  all 
classes,  but  in  a  manner  very  unequally;  indeed,  the  con- 
trast is  something  astonishing  in  this  respect  between 
the  well-to-do  and  the  working  classes,  between  town 
and  country  people,  the  difference  being  entirely  to  the 

68 


GUBLER.  59 

advantage  of  the  first.  While  among  those  high  in 
the  social  scale,  supple  arteries  are  to  be  noted  until  the 
approach  of  confirmed  old  age,  if  not  even  of  decrepi- 
tude; in  the  inferior  classes,  on  the  contrary,  arterial 
induration  often  shows  a  striking  precocity.  It  evi- 
dences itself  not  only  in  the  wane  of  life,  but  in  maturity 
and  even  in  youth.  In  our  hospitals,  for  example,  men 
of  40,  30,  and  even  20  and  under,  exhibit  the  radial  arte- 
ries already  thickened  and  resistant.  In  short,  while 
that  at  about  45  or  50  years  confirmed  degeneration  is 
the  general  rule  amongst  laborers  from  the  country,  the 
deterioration  only  commences  to  show  itself  at  about  the 
age  of  60  among  the  higher  classes.  Whence  comes  this 
strange  disparity?  Is  there  nothing  for  it  but  to  ascribe 
this  condition  as  one  more  of  the  baneful  effects  of  alcohol- 
ism? No  doubt  alcohol  is  a  great  evil,  and  it  is  not 
easy  to  put  the  working  classes  too  much  on  their 
guard  against  its  deplorable  influence.  Still,  there  is  no 
need  to  exaggerate,  and  for  my  part  I  am  convinced  that 
modern  physicians  have  not  always  been  able  to  avoid 
imputing  to  alcoholism  (so  fruitful  in  dangers  to  health 
and  life)  symptoms  the  real  cause  of  which  they  were 
unable  to  discover. 

"  I  do  not  pretend  absolutely  to  exonerate  alcohol  from 
all  share  in  this  atheromatous  and  calcareous  degenera- 
tion. I  merely  believe  I  can  establish  that  this  poison- 
ous agent  is  neither  the  sufficient  nor  the  principal  cause 
of  the  pathological  phenomena  under  consideration. 

"As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have  had  occasion  to  see  many 
subjects  of  premature  arterial  induration  who  have  em- 


60  GUBLER. 

phatically  affirmed  their  sobriety.  Among  these  there 
are  those  whose  sincerity  can  hardly  be  questioned,  and 
respecting  many  of  them  I  obtained  information  entirely 
favorable;  without  counting  that  the  youth  of  some  of 
them  made  it  impossible  that  habits  of  drunkenness, 
which  they  wholly  repudiated,  and  of  which  they  mani- 
fested no  other  distinctive  symptoms,  could  have  existed. 

"On  the  other  hand,  wealthy  people  are  not  exempt 
from  the  vice  that  is  attributed  (and  justly)  to  the  town 
working  classes.  I  know  many  gentlemen  who  never 
put  water  in  their  wine,  who  drink  plentifully  of  the  best 
wines,  and  do  not  abstain  from  spirits,  yet  who  remain 
free  from  all  atheromatous  and  calcareous  degeneration. 

"  It  may  be  urged,  perhaps,  that  in  the  higher  ranks 
of  society  alcoholic  drink  is  taken  with  the  meals,  and 
that,  consequently,  being  mingled  with  the  chymous 
matter,  and  slowly  absorbed,  it  is  not  so  liable  to  reach 
the  hepatic  gland  or  the  blood  in  sufficiently  large  quan- 
tity to  work  great  harm.  The  habits  of  the  two  classes 
however,  from  the  alcoholic  point  of  view,  are  not  so 
very  dissimilar,  and  consequently  they  are  not  capable 
of  accounting  for  the  profound  difference  that  exists 
between  rich  and  poor  in  respect  to  the  precocity  and 
intensity  of  this  deterioration  of  the  arterial  system. 

"  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  nourishment,  so  different 
in  the  cases  respectively  of  each  class,  poor  and  rich, 
country  and  town,  would  be  able  to  furnish  us  with  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  facts  noted.  While  the 
one  class  live  principally  on  flesh  (their  favorite  vege- 
tables— mushrooms,  truffles,  asparagus — are  themselves 


GUBLEE.  61 

largely  provided  with  the  nitrogenous  principle),  the  other 
class  is  sustained  on  vegetable  substances,  bread,  pota- 
toes, cabbages,  salads,  and  the  pulse  or  bean  species, 
forming  the  basis  of  their  food. 

"Now,  meat  and  the  albuminous  substances  contain 
very  little  mineral  elements;  while  cereals  are  well  sup- 
plied with  them.  It  is  the  leaves  of  plants  that  possess 
the  function  of  condensing  and  retaining  in  their  tissues 
the  mineral  matter  in  solution  in  the  ascending  sap,  and 
these  organs,  in  decaying,  yearly  restore  to  the  soil  the 
earthy  salts  the  plants  have  received.  Such  is  the 
physiologic  reason  for  the  enormous  proportion  of  earthy 
matter  which  the  consumption  of  green  portions  of  plants 
(and  consequently  of  the  pulses)  introduces  into  the 
human  economy,  and  into  that  of  the  herbivorous 
animals. 

"This  aliment  is  principally  composed  of  phosphates 
and  earthy  carbonates,  which,  easily  soluble  in  the  liquid 
acids  of  the  organism,  and  even  in  the  blood,  by  virtue  of 
an  excess  of  carbonic  gas,  are  no  longer  so,  either  in  the 
alkaline  secretions  or  in  the  serum  of  the  blood,  devoid 
as  the  latter  is  of  carbonic  acid.  These  saline  or  chalky 
matters,  then,  accumulating  and  being  precipitated  in 
the  liquid  secretions  of  various  organs,  tend,  among  other 
prejudicial  conditions,  to  the  formation  of  calcareous 
incrustations  throughout  the  system.  This  tendency  has 
a  two-fold  action,  not  only  causing  the  fossilization  of 
the  arteries  involved,  but,  by  introducing  alkaline  salts 
to  organic  acids,  it  serves  to  further  alkalize  the  fluids  of 
the  body  and  so  favor  the  precipitation  of  earthy  matters-. 


62  GUBLER. 

"  The  correctness  of  these  views  may  be  easily  veri- 
fied. If,  as  I  think,  the  cretaceous  incrustations  of  the 
arteries  have  their  origin  in  the  earthy  matters  supplied 
in  a  vegetarian  regime,  concurrently  with  drinking  waters 
charged  with  earthy  salts,  they  will  be  more  frequent, 
more  premature,  and  more  serious  in  chalky  districts; 
rarer,  and  even  absent,  in  siliceous  districts.  Well,  Dr. 
Leblanc  tells  me  that  he  has  been  struck  by  the  prev- 
alence of  this  morbid  state  among  the  peasants  of  1'Orleans. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  a  region  absolutely  devoid  of  lime, 
and  where  the  fowls  can  scarcely  make  shell  for  their 
eggs,  one  of  my  friends,  who  is  not  a  doctor  (although  he 
can  feel  the  pulses  of  his  work-people),  but  who  is  well 
read  in  science,  has  not  remarked  any  hardening  of  the 
arteries  except  in  case  of  those  well  advanced  in  years. 
My  friend,  Dr.  Vibert,  who  occupies  a  good  medical  posi- 
tion at  Puy,  informs  me  that  in  this  granitic  and  volcanic 
region  atheromatous  degeneration  is  rare. 

"  In  short,  if  I  am  right,  atheromatous  and  calcareous 
degeneration  affects  particularly  the  sects  pledged  to 
pulse-eating,  whose  recruits  come  from  the  better  class, 
as  well  as  the  religious  orders  vowed  to  the  monasticism 
and  to  the  vegetable  nourishment.  Such  was  the  case  in 
a  convent  of  Trappists  recently  visited  by  Dr.  Raymond. 
My  friend,  who  had  acquaintances  in  the  place,  was  able 
to  assure  himself  that  among  some  ten  monks  still  young, 
and  especially  in  the  case  of  the  prior,  who  was  only 
thirty-two  years  old,  the  radial  arteries  were  already 
markedly  indurated." 


FRUIT  AS  FOOD. 

DK.  EMMET  DENSMORE. 


[From  London  Horticultural  Times,  July  23,  1892.] 
Horticulturists,  it  seems  to  me,  are  doubly  interested 
in  the  subject  of  fruit  as  food.  If  it  can  be  shown  that 
the  substitution  of  fruit  for  bread,  cereals,  and  vegetables 
results  in  an  increase  of  health,  it  is,  of  course,  a  matter  of 
great  interest  to  every  one;  and  to  the  horticulturist  and 
fruit  dealer  this  problem  becomes  important  in  a  business 
sense. 

Scientists  and  physicians  are  in  substantial  agreement 
as  to  the  different  elements  of  food  needed  by  the  human 
organism,  and  also  as  to  the  relative  amounts  of  same. 
It  has  been  deduced  from  experiments  made  on  soldiers 
and  with  inmates  of  public  institutions  that  for  an  average 
adult  performing  healthful,  but  not  excessive,  labor, 
about  twenty-one  or  twenty-two  ounces  of  dried  food  in 
the  twenty-four  hours  are  requisite  to  keep  up  weight  and 
strength.  Of  this,  nearly  seventeen  ounces  must  be  car- 
bonaceous or  heat-giving;  about  four  ounces  nitrogenous, 
or  that  which  is  intended  for  the  support  of  muscular 
action,  and  less  than  an  ounce  of  the  phosphatic  to  support 
the  brain  or  nervous  system,  and  a  small  percentage  of 
salts  for  the  bony  structure. 

If  bread  be  analyzed,  after  its  water  has  been  evapo- 
rated, it  is  found  that  nearly  seventy  per  cent  is  composed 

63 


64  FRUIT  AS  FOOD. 

of  starch;  and  the  purpose  that  this  subserves  in  the  sys- 
tem is  to  keep  up  the  heat  of  the  body.  It  is  well  known 
to  physiologists  that  while  it  remains  in  the  condition  of 
starch  it  is  nonabsorbable  and  non assimilable  by  the 
system;  it  only  becomes  food  when  it  is  converted  by  the 
digestive  process  first  into  dextrine  and  then  into  glucose. 
If  fruit  be  analyzed,  it  will  be  found  that  a  large  portion 
is  carbonaceous,  like  the  starch  in  bread,  and  is  used  in 
sustaining  the  heat  of  the  body.  In  the  dried  figs  of 
commerce  there  is  about  sixty-eight  per  cent  of  glucose, 
which  is  nearly  the  amount  of  starch  contained  in  wheat 
flour,  and  nearly  twice  as  much  of  glucose  is  contained  in 
a  pound  of  such  figs  as  bread  contains  of  starch,  since 
bread  is  about  half  water.  Dates  and  bananas  are  simi- 
larly rich  in  this  carbonaceous  element.  Fruits  growing 
in  more  northern  regions  are  usually  much  more  watery, 
and  possess  a  much  smaller  proportion  of  the  heat-giving 
nourishment;  but  many  readers  will  be  surprised  to  learn 
that  substantially  all  the  fruits  usually  grown  in  more 
northern  latitudes  are  still — when  allowance  is  made  for 
the  great  preponderance  of  water — quite  rich  in  heat- 
giving  food. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  when  eating  bread  one  must  be 
furnished  with  some  fluid  for  drink;  whereas,  when 
grapes,  apples,  etc.,  are  used  instead  of  bread,  nature  pro- 
vides a  distilled  water,  manifestly  more  wholesome  than 
any  other  drink  which  the  human  being  can  take. 

Grapes,  strawberries,  blackberries  and  raspberries  are 
rich  in  sugar,  and  all  these  fruits  may  be  plentifully  and 
cheaply  produced,  and,  by  preserving,  may  be  kept  sub- 


FRUIT  AS  FOOD.  65 

stantially  the  year  round.  The  fruitarian  has  only  to 
add  a  small  quantity  of  figs,  dates,  or  bananas  —  and 
some  one  of  these  fruits  is  always  obtainable  at  a  low 
price — to  obtain  all  the  nourishing  elements  contained  in 
bread,  and  to  have,  in  addition,  a  food  much  more  easily 
digested,  rich  in  aperient  and  health-giving  acids,  and 
filled  with  the  most  wholesome  drink  known. 

Men  are  prone  to  think  in  grooves,  and  to  follow  cus- 
tom without  thought  or  challenge;  and  when  one,  for  the 
first  time,  hears  of  the  proposition  to  substitute  fruit  for 
bread,  it  seems  very  absurd,  simply  because  we  are  unused 
to  it.  But  when  it  is  examined  scientifically  and  experi- 
mentally, it  will  be  found  to  be,  riot  only  not  absurd,  but 
to  have  every  possible  reason  to  recommend  it.  The  use 
of  bread  and  of  starch  foods  tends  to  constipation.  To 
overcome  this,  hygienists  have  in  recent  years  recom- 
mended the  use  of  coarse  or  unbolted  meal  bread,  which 
inflames  the  stomach  and  bowels,  and,  because  of  this 
inflammation,  induces  a  free  action.  During  the  last  few 
years  a  reaction  against  this  custom  has  set  in.  Hygien- 
ists are  ascertaining  that  this  daily  inflammation  of  the 
stomach  and  intestines  is  very  detrimental  to  health; 
and  in  the  "  Dietetic  Value  of  Bread,"  a  recent  book  by 
John  Goodfellow,  lecturer  on  physiology  and  hygiene  at 
the  (London)  Bow  and  Bromley  Institute,  the  following 
noteworthy  remarks  occur  (page  199): 

"  Ordinary  (i.  e.  coarse)  wholemeal  bread  contains 
more  actual  waste  matter  than  white  bread;  is  not  so 
thoroughly  digested  as  white  bread;  its  ingestion  in  con- 
siderable quantities  leads  to  an  increase  of  waste  in  other 


66  FRUIT  AS  FOOD. 

foods;  and  it  may  cause  diarrhoea  and  irritate  the  villous 
coat  of  the  intestines.'1 

As  soon  as  we  depend  upon  ordinary  bread  for  our 
heat-giving  food,  there  is  at  once  a  strong  tendency  to 
constipation.  Fruit,  on  the  other  hand,  while  furnishing 
a  food  rich  in  heat-giving  elements,  also  contains  an  acid 
which  is  aperient  in  its  action,  and  the  ingestion  of  fruit 
as  a  considerable  portion  of  our  dietary  guarantees  free 
and  natural  action  of  the  bowels.  When  we  add  to  this 
strong  argument  in  favor  of  fruit  the  incontestable  physi- 
ological fact  that  the  heat-giving  nourishment  which  it 
contains  is  prepared  by  nature  in  the  form  of  glucose,  and 
requires  no  digestion  on  the  part  of  the  system,  but  is 
ready  for  absorption  and  assimilation  as  soon  as  it  is 
swallowed,  whereas  bread,  cereals,  and  all  starchy  vege- 
tables must  undergo  a  protracted  and  vital  force  wasting 
digestion  before  their  nourishment  is  converted  into  this 
same  glucose,  we  perceive  an  overwhelming  demonstra- 
tion of  the  superiority  of  fruit  over  cereals  as  the  staff  of 
life. 

Nearly  all  the  elements  of  food  contained  in  fruits 
and  nuts,  together  with  those  found  in  milk,  eggs,  fish, 
flesh,  and  fowl,  are  digested  in  the  main  stomach;  whereas 
bread,  cereals,  and  vegetables,  although  remaining  in  the 
stomach  and  undergoing  its  churnings  while  the  nitro- 
genous portions  of  the  food  are  being  digested,  are  passed 
on  to  the  intestines  before  digestion  can  take  place. 

The  doctrine  that  fruits  are  a  wholesome  and  desirable 
article  of  diet  is  not  new,  and  it  is  also  a  popular  idea 
with  mixed  feeders.  But,  practically,  it  will  be  found, 


FRUIT  AS  FOOD.  67 

both  with  the  vegetarians  and  those  on  the  usual  diet, 
that  wherever  persons  depend  on  bread  and  cereals  for 
their  heat-giving  nourishment,  there  is  no  room  for  fruits, 
and  generally  fruit  is  not  eaten.  In  proof  of  this  asser- 
tion one  has  but  to  note  the  food  usually  taken  at  vege- 
tarian restaurants,  or  at  hotels  where  the  usual  diet  is 
dispensed.  Fruit  is  simply  an  unused  ornament,  much 
celebrated  in  talk,  decidedly  ignored  in  practice.  When 
the  truth  is  brought  home  to  people  that  fruit  is  man's 
natural  food,  and  all  bread  and  cereals  are  not  only 
more  difficult  to  digest,  but  that  they  necessarily  dis- 
place nature's  food  of  health,  a  strong  reason  will  be  seen 
for  substituting  fruits  for  bread,  cereals,  and  vegetables. 
For  other  portions  of  the  food  no  alteration  is  recom- 
mended at  the  outset.  Vegetarians,  and  those  opposed  to 
the  use  of  flesh  in  their  dietary,  can  add  nuts  or  milk, 
eggs,  and  cheese,  to  their  fruit;  and  those  accustomed  to 
fish,  flesh,  and  fowl  can  continue  their  usual  portions  of 
those  foods.  The  substitution  of  fruits  for  bread  and 
vegetables  will  be  found  upon  experiment  to  produce  the 
happiest  results. 


FROM  "  HOW  NATURE  CURES  "  BY 

DE.  EMMET  DENSMORE- 


Intimately  connected  with  the  subject  of  food  is  the 
question  what  is  best  to  drink.  Those  persons  who  are 
able  to  live  on  a  fruit  and  nut  diet  do  not  need  any 
drink;  if  an  abundance  of  fruit  as  prepared  by  nature  is 
to  be  had,  all  the  water  needed  by  the  system  is  con- 
tained in  such  fruit.  If  recourse  be  had  to  dried  fruits, 
and  if  these  fruits  be  restored  to  nearly  their  natural 
condition  by  the  liberal  addition  of  distilled  water,  there 
is  still  no  need  of  drink.  But  persons  who  are  unable 
to  properly  digest  and  assimilate  nuts,  and  who  are 
obliged  to  get  a  considerable  portion  of  their  sustenance 
from  flesh  or  animal  foods,  will  need  to  drink  water. 
This  is  best  done^when  the  stomach  is  empty — half  an 
hour  or  an  hour  before  each  meal.  A  half  pint  or  a  pint 
of  water  taken  at  such  times  not  only  furnishes  the 
system  with  needed  fluids,  but  serves  to  wash  out  the 
stomach,  to  stimulate  the  action  of  the  bowels,  and  to 
overcome  constipation.  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
that  this  water  be  pure.  Nearly  all  water  obtained  from 
springs,  wells,  and  running  streams  contains  more  or  less 
of  organic  impurities  and  mineral  matter.  The  most 
reliable  method  of  getting  pure  water  is  to  distill  it.  A 
still  capable  of  evaporating  several  gallons  daily,  and 

68 


DENSMORE.  69 

which  can  be  operated  by  the  heat  of  an  oil  lamp,  or  a 
gas  flame,  can  be  obtained  at  small  expense. 

When  sufficient  water  has  been  taken  preceding  a 
meal,  no  drink  at  the  time  of  eating  is  required  or  desir- 
able. The  quite  universal  habit  of  washing  down  the 
food  with  tea,  coffee,  beer,  wine,  and  the  like,  not  only 
interferes  with  proper  mastication,  but  induces  or  con- 
tributes to  the  habit  of  overeating.  Moreover,  any  person 
who  will  discontinue  the  use  of  such  drinks  for  a  year  or 
longer  will  be  convinced  not  only  that  they  are  of  no 
value,  but  that  they  work  positive  harm. 

The  stimulating  and  exhilarating  effects  of  tea  and 
coffee,  and  in  a  less  degree  of  cocoa  or  chocolate,  are 
caused  by  a  substance  called  theine  in  tea,  caffeine  in 
coffee,  and  bromine  in  cocoa  or  chocolate  and  the  kola 
nut,  so  popular  in  Africa  and  along  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean.  These  have  all  a  similar  alkaloid  base. 
Theine,  caffeine,  bromine,  and  koline  are  different  names 
for  one  substance.  The  amount  of  this  alkaloid  con- 
tained in  each  of  the  articles  is,  according  to  Chambers' 
Encyclopedia,  as  follows: 

100  parts  of  tea  contain  3  parts  of  theine. 

100  parts  of  coffee  contain  1,75  parts  of  caffeine. 

100  parts  of  kola  nut  contain  2.13  of  koline. 

Chocolate  or  cocoa  contains  a  smaller  percentage  of  the 
stimulating  and  poisonous  alkaloid;  but  like  all  kindred 
drinks,  it  would  not  long  be  used  if  it  had  none.  It  will 
be  found  by  any  earnest  student  who  will  make  an  ex- 
haustive study  of  this  subject  that  opium,  alcohol,  to- 
bacco, tea,  and  coffee  are  intimately  related  in  their  effect 


70  DENSMORE. 

upon  the  human  system.  A  small  dose  of  opium  acts  as 
an  agreeable  stimulant,  followed  by  a  desire  to  sleep;  a 
small  portion  of  brandy  has  a  precisely  similar  effect. 
Tobacco  is  more  distinctly  a  narcotic;  but  when  its  use 
is  indulged  in  moderately,  it  lends  a  pleasant  stimulus 
to  the  brain  and  nervous  system,  followed  by  a  desire  to 
sleep.  Tea  and  coffee  are  at  first  distinctly  stimulating, 
inducing  a  pleasing  condition  of  the  brain  and  nervous 
system,  and  if  the  quantity  be  not  excessive,  the  stimulus 
is  followed  by  a  distinctly  sedative  and  narcotic  effect. 

In  the  matter  of  opium,  the  safety  of  the  intelligent 
portion  of  the  race  is  due  to  an  almost  universal  and 
well-defined  apprehension  of  the  dangers  of  the  opium 
habit.  To  the  millions  of  victims  of  the  opium  habit  in 
the  East  this  practice  no  doubt  seemed  as  harmless  as 
the  use  of  tobacco,  tea,  and  coffee  appears  to  those  who 
indulge  in  these  stimulants  in  modern  life.  But  in  West- 
ern civilization  it  is  well  known  that  the  habit  of  opium- 
taking  is  equivalent  to  self-destruction,  and  invariably 
leads  to  the  most  appalling  misery,  suffering,  and  death. 
Herein  lies  our  safety. 

Fortunately,  the  effects  of  the  excessive  use  of  alcohol 
are  such  that  few,  if  any,  intelligent  persons  can  remain 
oblivious  to  its  dangers.  Tea  and  coffee  and  tobacco  do 
not  inebriate,  and  do  not  speedily,  as  does  alcohol,  trans- 
form a  human  being  into  a  wreck.  A  moderate  use  of 
alcoholic  stimulants,  such  as  is  indulged  in  by  Continental 
people  in  the  daily  use  of  natural  wine  with  meals,  does 
not  necessarily  lead  to  inebriety,  and  we  find  thousands 
of  intelligent  people  contending  for  the  great  value  of 


DENSMOBE.  71 

such  moderate  use  of  alcohol.  So,  too,  the  medical  pro- 
fession, and  the  lay  world  as  well,  are  divided  as  to  the 
effect  of  tobacco  upon  the  human  system^  many  contend- 
ing that  this  narcotic  is  distinctly  healthful  and  valuable. 

The  student  who  has  become  aware  of  the  undeviating 
and  necessarily  injurious  and  destructive  effect  of  tobacco 
upon  the  human  system,  and  who  searches  for  an  explana- 
tion of  why  it  is  that  there  can  be  such  a  difference  of 
opinion  regarding  this  matter,  will  find  the  solution  in 
the  fact  that  the  destructive  effect  of  tobacco,  as  also  of 
the  moderate  use  of  alcohol  in  wine  and  light  beer,  is  not 
immediately  seen.  Years  are  required  to  undermine  and 
break  down  the  nervous  system;  and  when  the  disaster 
has  been  reached  there  is  not  an  immediate  connection 
between  the  cause  and  the  result,  as  there  is  in  the  case 
of  the  drunkard  between  his  condition  and  alcohol,  and 
in  the  case  of  the  opium-eater  between  his  condition  and 
opium.  It  will  be  a  surprise  to  many  to  be  made  aware 
of  the  serious  effects  which  these  poisons  in  such  com- 
mon use  have  upon  the  system  when  taken  in  large  doses. 
The  following  quotation  is  taken  from  Taylor's  "  Princi- 
ples and  Practice  of  Medical  Jurisprudence,"  page  321: 

"The  effects  which  tobacco  produces  in  large  doses, 
when  taken  by  persons  unaccustomed  to  its  use  in  the 
form  of  powder,  infusion,  or  excessive  smoking,  are  faint- 
ness,  nausea,  vomiting,  giddiness,  delirium,  loss  of  power 
of  the  limbs,  general  relaxation  of  the  muscular  system, 
trembling,  complete  prostration  of  strength,  coldness  of 
the  surface,  with  cold,  clammy  perspiration,  convulsive 
movements,  paralysis,  and  death.  In  some  cases  there 


72  DENSMORE. 

is  purging  with  violent  pain  in  the  abdomen;  in  others 
there  is  rather  a  sense  of  sinking  or  depression  in  the 
region  of  the  heart,  creating  a  feeling  of  impending  dis- 
solution. With  the  above-mentioned  symptoms  there  is 
a  dilatation  of  the  pupils,  dimness  of  the  sight,  a  small, 
weak,  and  scarcely  perceptible  pulse,  and  difficulty  of 
breathing." 

The  writer  of  an  article  on  tea  in  Chambers'  Encyclo- 
pedia, an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  what  he  names  "  the 
exhilarating,  satisfying,  or  narcotic  action  of  tea,"  else- 
where in  the  same  article  says: 

"  If  double  the  above  quantity  of  theine  (or  of  the  tea 
containing  it)  be  taken,  there  is  a  general  excitement  of 
the  circulation,  the  heart  beating  more  strongly,  and  the 
pulse  becoming  more  rapid;  tremblings  also  come  on, 
and  there  is  a  constant  desire  to  relieve  the  bladder.  At 
the  same  time  the  imagination  is  excited,  the  mind  begins 
to  wander,  visions  appear,  and  a  peculiar  kind  of  intoxi- 
cation comes  on;  the  symptoms  finally  terminate,  after  a 
prolonged  vigil,  in  a  sleep  arising  from  exhaustion." 

The  italicism  is  ours;  we  think  it  well  to  note  the  unin- 
tentional admission  that  insomnia  is  one  of  the  products 
of  the  tea  habit.  It  is  well  known  that  tea-tasters 
become  subject  to  headache  and  giddiness,  and  not  infre- 
quently are  subject  to  attacks  of  paralysis. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  these  poisons — opium, 
alcohol,  tobacco,  tea,  and  coffee — can  be  taken  in  moder- 
ation for  years  with  no  necessarily  convincing  demonstra- 
tion to  the  victim  that  his  or  her  nervous  system  is  being 
undermined  and  destroyed.  At  the  same  time,  persons 


DENSMORE.  73 

who  indulge  in  tea,  coffee,  and  tobacco,  should  rememher 
that  a  moderate  use  of  opium  and  alcohol  may  easily 
and  frequently  does  appear  as  innocent  as  the  ordinary 
use  of  tea,  coffee,  and  tobacco.  It  ought  also  to  be  sub- 
ject for  earnest  thought  that  while  tea,  coffee,  and  tobacco, 
as  ordinarily  indulged  in,  do  not  at  once  effect  the  de- 
struction of  the  nervous  system,  nevertheless,  when  taken 
in  large  doses  the  effect  may  be  death,  as  shown  by  the 
above  quotation  concerning  tobacco,  or  profound  nervous 
prostration  in  the  case  of  the  large  dose  of  tea. 

It  is  worthy  of  note,  also,  that  all  these  substances 
have  a  disagreeable  taste  and  effect  upon  the  human 
system  when  indulged  in  for  the  first  time.  It  may  be 
tea,  coffee,  tobacco,  alcohol,  or  opium,  an  adult  human 
being  who  has  never  taken  anything  of  the  sort  will  be 
repelled  and  disgusted  at  the  first  effects.  The  writer  on 
tobacco  in  Chambers'  Encyclopedia  says: 

"  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  particulars  regarding 
the  symptoms  of  slight  tobacco  poisoning,  because  they 
are  all  well  known  to  the  great  majority  of  the  male 
population.  Fortunately,  the  effects  produced  by  to- 
bacco are  very  transitory,  as  the  poison  finds  a  ready 
exit  from  the  body.  The  system  after  being  subjected 
for  a  few  times  to  the  poison  of  tobacco  smoke  becomes 
accustomed  to  its  influence,  the  distressing  symptoms  no 
longer  occur,  and  a  condition  of  ' tolerance'  is  estab- 
lished." 

"Fortunately,"  with  regard  to  the  readiness  with  which 
the  tobacco  poison  finds  an  exit  from  the  body,  is  an  ex- 
pression that  may  well  be  challenged.  It  seems  to  us 


74  DENSMORE. 

rather  that  it  is  fortunate  that  the  evils  of  opium  eating 
are  so  tremendous  that  he  who  runs  may  read;  and  that 
the  destructive  effects  of  inebriety  are  so  great  that  in  all 
the  world  there  cannot  be  found  a  single  defender  of  the 
habit;  it  is  unfortunate,  in  our  view,  that  the  manifestly 
poisonous  effects  of  tobacco,  when  the  habit  is  first  com- 
menced, are  so  transitory,  for  the  reason  that  the  system 
is  gradually  undermined  while  the  victim  is  not  aware  of 
the  source  of  the  difficulty.  The  same  writer  as  quoted 
above,  and  to  whom  it  seemed  "fortunate"  that  the  to- 
bacco poison  finds  a  ready  exit  from  the  body,  says: 

"It  (tobacco)  may,  however,  produce  various  func- 
tional disturbances;  (a)  on  the  stomach;  (I)  on  the  heart, 
producing  debility  and  irregular  action;  (c)  on  the  organs 
of  the  senses,  as  dilatation  of  the  pupil,  confusion  of  vis- 
ion, subjective  sounds,  etc.;  (d)  on  the  brain,  suspend- 
ing the  waste  of  that  organ,  and  oppressing  it  if  it  be 
duly  nourished,  soothing  it  if  it  be  exhausted;  (e)  on  the 
the  nerves,  leading  to  over-secretion  of  the  glands  which 
they  control;  (/)  on  the  mucous  membrane  of  the 
mouth,  causing  what  has  been  described  as  the  '  smokers' 
sore-throat/  a  disease  consisting  of  an  irritation  of  the 
mucous  membrane  at  the  back  of  the  throat,  redness 
there,  dryness,  a  tendency  to  cough,  and  an  enlarged, 
sore  condition  of  the  tonsils  rendering  every  act  of  swal- 
lowing painful  and  difficult.  It  may  exist  without  detec- 
tion for  a  long  time,  but  if  a  damp,  cold,  foggy  state  of 
the  weather  comes  on,  the  throat  becomes  troublesome 
and  painful,  enlargement  of  the  tonsils  is  detected,  and 
the  symptoms  become  much  aggravated  by  any  attempt 


.  ;.. 

DENSMORE.  75 

to  smoke.  This  condition  is  more  readily  induced  by  the 
use  of  cigars  than  of  pipes.  It  is  quite  incurable  as 
long  as  the  patient  continues  to  smoke,  but  soon  dis- 
appears when  the  use  of  tobacco  is  entirely  suspended. 
In  association  with  this  condition  of  the  throat,  the  gums 
are  usually  abnormally  pale  and  firm,  (g)  On  the  bron- 
chial surface  of  the  lungs,  sustaining  any  irritation  that 

may  be  present,  and  increasing  the  cough If 

as  is  usually  allowed,  tobacco  (in  minute  doses)  possesses, 
like  arsenic,  opium,  tea,  coffee,  etc.,  the  power  of  ar- 
resting the  oxidation  of  the  living  tissues,  and  thus  check- 
ing their  disintegration,  it  follows  that  the  habit  of  smok- 
ing must  be  most  deleterious  to  the  young,  causing  in 
them  impairment  of  growth,  premature  manhood,  and 
physical  degradation." 

The  reader's  attention  is  called  to  the  singular  fact 
that  an  authority  who  praises  the  use  of  tea  arid  coffee, 
and  who  is  wholly  in  doubt  as  to  whether  smoking  is 
injurious  to  health,  should  group  tobacco,  tea,  and  coffee 
together  with  arsenic  and  opium. 

As  before  remarked,  it  is  just  in  this  apparent  harm- 
lessness  of  the  moderate  use  of  tea,  coffee,  tobacco  and 
alcohol  that  lies  their  greatest  danger.  The  inveterate 
tobacco-user,  in  reading  these  quotations,  the  meaning 
of  which  is  so  plain,  may  resolutely  shut  his  eyes  to  the 
inevitable  conclusion  that  common  sense  must  arrive  at, 
namely,  that  a  substance  that  insidiously  induces  the 
"  smokers'  sore  throat,"  together  with  the  other  patho- 
logical conditions  named,  must  necessarily  be  in  its  very 
nature  injurious  to  the  health  of  a  human  being;  and  an 


76  DENSMORE. 

inveterate  tea-drinker,  who  is  unable  to  conceive  of  how 
he  or  she  could  find  life  worth  the  living  without  the 
daily  indulgence  in  his  or  her  favorite  beverage,  may  also 
shut  his  or  her  eyes  to  the  plain  deductions  concerning 
the  matter  of  tea,  that  must  of  necessity  be  injurious  in 
very  small  quantities  when  larger  doses  induce  increased 
heart-beat,  "  general  excitement  of  the  circulation,  dis- 
position of  the  mind  to  wander,  excitement  of  the 
imagination,  and  a  peculiar  kind  of  intoxication;  the 
symptoms  finally  terminating,  after  a  prolonged  vigil,  in 
a  sleep  arising  from  exhaustion."  Arsenic  or  opium 
taken  in  moderately  large  doses  cause  death.  When  the 
habit  of  taking  these  poisons  is  adopted  gradually,  large 
quantities  may  be  taken  without  giving  any  immediate 
sign  of  their  injurious  nature.  An  unbiased  student  who 
will  reflect  upon  the  many  facts  concerning  these  cor- 
related poisons  soon  becomes  convinced  that  they  are 
alike  to  be  avoided  as  highly  dangerous,  in  that  a  moderate 
use  of  them  does  not  at  once  give  conclusive  demonstra- 
tion of  their  injurious  nature,  and  that  a  prolonged 
indulgence  in  them  finally  ends  in  greatly  damaging  the 
nervous  system. 

****** 
What  is  the  originating  cause  of  the  use  of,  and  the 
desire  for,  stimulants?  Unquestionably  it  is  lack  of 
health.  There  are  many  men  and  women  in  the  prime 
and  vigor  of  life  who  use  no  stimulants  whatever,  either 
in  their  food  or  drink;  and  who  do  not  feel  from  one 
year's  end  to  another  a  sense  of  weariness  or  a  need  for 
any  artificial  aid.  Let  such  an  individual  go  for  twenty- 


DENSMORE.  77 

four  or  forty-eight  hours  without  rest  or  sleep,  and 
attempt  to  continue  laboring  for  some  hours  more,  and 
a  distinct  need  for  a  stimulant  will  be  felt.  After  he 
has  exhausted  his  organism  by  the  twenty-four  or  forty- 
eight  hours'  continuous  work,  if  there  be  a  necessity  for 
only  a  limited  number  of  additional  hours  a  cup  of 
coffee,  a  glass  of  wine,  or  a  small  portion  of  brandy 
would  undoubtedly  enable  him  to  perform  the  additional 
task  with  greater  ease  than  without  it;  and  not  unlikely 
enable  him  in  some  instances  to  do  in  a  given  brief 
length  of  time  more  than  he  could  do  elsewise.  The 
result  of  such  stimulus  is  easily  perceived.  Anyone 
who  works  forty-eight  or  even  twenty-four  hours  with- 
out rest  or  sleep  inflicts  great  damage  upon  the  nervous 
system;  and  the  additional  labor  that  he  is  able  to  per- 
form by  virtue  of  the  stimulus  of  the  tea  or  coffee  or 
alcohol  is  a  further  damage,  not  only  because  of  the  in- 
creased amount  of  work,  but  because  of  the  inevitable 
reaction  from  the  stimulus  to  the  nervous  system,  and  the 
weakness  that  is  sure  to  follow  such  reaction. 

The  philosophic  student  has  but  to  survey  the  field  of 
civilization  to  perceive  that  a  majority  of  men  and  women 
are  performing  an  excessive  amount  of  labor,  and  are 
taking  inadequate  sleep  and  rest.  It  is  thus  easy  to 
understand  why  it  is  that  the  human  race,  in  all  ages 
and  nations,  has  reached  out  for  some  form  of  stimu- 
lant. 

As  before  said,  gratifying  the  craving  for  stimulation 
with  tea,  coffee,  or  alcohol  serves  but  to  further  deprave 
the  system  and  further  cause  it  to  require  stimulation. 


78  DENSMORE. 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  all  these  poisons  and  habits 
mutually  play  into  each  other's  hands.  Anyone  who 
eschews  tea  or  coffee,  as  well  as  alcoholic  drinks,  and 
who  has  studied  this  question,  is  well  aware  that  the 
use  of  tea  and  coffee  paves  the  way  for  the  use  of  to- 
bacco, at  any  rate  in  the  male,  and  that  anyone  using 
tea,  coffee,  or  tobacco  is  much  more  apt  to  acquire  the 
alcoholic  habit  than  one  who  does  not  use  these  stimu- 
lants. 

A  perception  of  these  principles  affords  the  rationale 
and  explanation  not  only  of  the  causes  of  intemperance, 
but  of  the  proper  methods  to  be  used  for  its  prevention 
and  cure.  Whatever  habits  or  practices  tend  to  under- 
mine the  nervous  system  must  be  discontinued.  Exces- 
sive work  must  be  refrained  from,  and  foods  requiring  an 
unnatural  and  undue  strain  upon  the  nervous  system  for 
their  digestion  must  be  avoided.  The  conditions  to  be 
sought  for  are  freedom  from  overwork;  the  use  of  a 
nourishing  and  easily  digested  food;  and  the  avoidance 
of  all  stimulants — tea,  coffee,  tobacco,  alcohol. 

If  the  contention  be  admitted  as  correct — that  a  much 
larger  proportion  of  heat-forming  food  is  needed  by  the 
system  than  all  others;  that  the  predominating  nourish- 
ment in  cereals  and  vegetables  is  in  the  form  of  starch; 
and  that  this  starch  cannot  be  digested  and  assimilated 
by  the  system  except  by  excessive  strain,  and  an  inevi- 
table waste  of  nervous  power;  and  if  the  sweet  fruits 
contain  a  predominant  quantity  of  this  heat-giving 
nourishment  in  a  condition  all  ready  to  be  assimilated 
by  the  system  without  digestion  and  without  nervous 


DENSMORE.  79 

strain,  it  must  be  plain  that  the  universal  habit  of  cereal- 
eating  is  a  prime  cause  of  nervous  prostration,  and  an 
ever-acting  factor  tending  to  the  contraction  of  the  alco- 
holic habit. 

Followers  of  vegetarianism  have  claimed,  and  justly, 
that  their  system  is  favorable  to  temperance,  and  to  the 
cure  of  the  alcoholic  habit.  Since,  in  the  adoption  of 
vegetarianism,  there  is  the  chance  of  taking  an  even 
larger  proportion  of  starch  foods  than  was  used  before, 
the  reader  will  naturally  inquire  how  this  system  can  be 
said  to  be  favorable  to  temperance  in  face  of  the  fact 
of  the  larger  use  of  starch  foods.  It  may  be  that  one 
making  a  change  from  the  ordinary  diet  of  civilization 
to  the  vegetarian  diet  is  not  at  all  certain  to  use  an  in- 
creased amount  of  bread  and  cereals.  The  accustomed 
dishes  that  appeal  to  their  palate  are  wanting.  They 
have  not  as  many  tempting  sauces  to  induce  the  taking 
of  more  food  than  is  required  for  the  needs  of  the  system, 
and  these  two  forces  are  frequently  operative  on  a  new 
convert  to  vegetarianism,  causing  him  to  use  even  a  less 
amount  of  starch  foods  at  the  outset  than  was  used  before 
its  adoption.  But  this  is  not  by  any  means  the  only  fac- 
tor which  enters  into  the  problem.  To  become  a  vege- 
tarian is  to  become  a  student  of  hygiene;  to  become 
impressed  with  the  importance  of  obedience  to  hygienic 
law, — with  the  importance  of  simplicit}7  in  diet  and 
living, — with  a  perception  of  the  prostrating  and  danger- 
ous effect  of  stimulants,  and  especially  of  tobacco  and 
alcohol,  and  with  the  importance  of  regularity  in  the 
times  of  eating,  and  moderation  in  quantities.  These 


80  DENSMORE. 

hygienic  studies  and  practices  usually  tend  toward  a  life 
of  temperance.  Vegetarians  are  not,  however,  generally 
aware  of  the  physiologic  effects  of  tea  and  coffee,  and 
often  continue  their  use.  They  are  obliged  to  get  their 
needed  nitrogen  either  from  bread  or  pulses,  or  from 
eggs,  milk,  and  cheese.  It  has  been  proven  by  scientific 
experiments  in  analyzing  the  excreta  that  the  nitroge- 
nous portions  of  bread  and  pulses  are  much  more  difficult 
to  digest,  and  are  much  more  apt  to  be  passed  through 
the  system  without  digestion,  than  the  nitrogen  found  in 
fish  or  flesh.  Experiments  have  also  shown  that  eggs, 
milk,  and  cheese  are  more  difficult  to  digest  than  flesh 
foods,  and  hence  a  convert  to  vegetarianism  is  handi- 
capped by  being  obliged  to  expend  a  greater  amount  of 
nervous  force  to  obtain  his  needed  nitrogen  than  while  he 
was  living  upon  a  mixed  diet. 

The  natural  food  system  combines  all  the  advantages 
of  vegetarianism  and  escapes  its  evils.  It  pleads  for  a 
much  greater  simplicity  in  diet,  and  teaches  that  tea, 
coffee,  and  tobacco  play  into  each  other's  hands  and  pre- 
pare the  way  for  King  Alcohol.  Its  followers  are  able  to 
get  their  heat-giving  food  with  almost  no  digestive  effort, 
and  consequently  no  strain  upon  the  nervous  system;  and 
are  able  to  obtain  the  nitrogenous  portion  of  their  nourish- 
ment also  with  a  less  expenditure  of  digestive  force. 
Viewed  from  whatever  standpoint,  it  will  be  seen  that 
these  plain  teachings  of  physiology  stand  together  to 
form  an  impregnable  bulwark  of  temperance  for  all  who 
will  adopt  them;  and  that  the  substitution  of  the  sweet 
fruits  for  bread,  cereals,  and  starchy  vegetables  is  an 


DENSMOBE.  81 

invaluable  factor  both  for  the  prevention  and  cure  of  the 
drinking  habit. 

One  who  has  abstained  from  intoxicants  until  middle 
life,  but  who,  nevertheless,  from  incorrect  diet  or  overwork, 
or  any  such  reason,  finds  himself  or  herself  in  somewhat 
frail  health,  if  persuaded  to  take  light  wine  or  beer  with 
meals,  is  apt  at  first  to  feel  decided  improvement.  The 
stimulus  of  the  wine  for  a  time  increases  the  digestive 
powers,  and  the  patient  consequently  has  an  improved 
appetite,  and  digests  and  assimilates  a  greater  amount  of 
nourishment.  Unfortunately,  the  alcohol,  which  has 
done  some  good  by  stimulating  the  appetite  and  diges- 
tion, soon  begins  its  work  of  undermining  the  nervous 
system,  and  in  due  time,  if  its  entire  effect  be  considered, 
it  will  be  found  to  have  done  decidedly  more  harm  than 
good. 

Likewise,  any  one  who  has  been  in  rather  frail  health 
up  to  middle  life,  and  perhaps  somewhat  emaciated,  and 
finds  himself  or  herself  eating  more  food  and  with  a 
better  relish  than  formerly,  and  notices  also  a  gradual 
increase  in  weight  and  roundness,  considers  these  unmis- 
takable evidences  of  improved  health.  Very  few,  even 
among  physicians,  are  aware  of  the  dangers  which 
threaten  such  an  individual.  If  a  person  in  such  cir- 
cumstances should  BO  manage  his  or  her  diet  as  not  to 
permit  a  greater  accumulation  of  flesh  than  is  normal  or 
natural,  the  threatened  dangers  would  be  avoided. 

Unfortunately,  nearly  all  persons— including  a  large 
proportion  of  physicians — are  under  the  impression  that 
a  moderate  obesity,  when  occurring  in  middle  life,  is 


82  DENSMORE 

natural  to  many  human  beings.  Scientific  physicians 
are  aware  that  there  is  only  a  small  amount  of  adipose 
tissue — some  seven  pounds  in  a  person  weighing  154 — in 
the  human  organism,  and  are  also  aware  that  each  pound 
above  the  normal  amount  is  a  detriment  in  various 
ways.  Among  the  more  serious  of  these  may  be  men- 
tioned the  pressure  upon  the  vital  organs  caused  by  in- 
creasing surplus  flesh,  and  the  degeneration  of  the  heart 
and  other  organs  that  frequently  follows  in  obesity's  train. 
But  a  majority  of  these  same  physicians,  unaware  of  the 
readiness  with  which  obesity  or  corpulence  can  be  con- 
trolled, regard  this  infirmity  as  if  it  were  inevitable,  and 
have  no  thought  whatever  either  of  its  serious  nature  or 
of  advising  such  measures  as  are  sure  to  reduce  and  con- 
trol it.  As  before  stated,  the  most  unfortunate  feature  in 
regard  to  the  encouragement  of  this  disease  is  the  well- 
nigh  universal  ignorance  concerning  it — the  conviction 
on  the  part  of  most  persons  that  a  moderate  rotundity 
and  increase  of  weight  in  middle  life  is  desirable  rather 
than  otherwise.  Many  people  have  rheumatism  in  mid- 
dle life.  Among  some  races  and  peoples  cases  of  rheuma- 
tism are  far  more  frequent  than  are  cases  of  obesity  or 
corpulence  among  others.  But  rheumatism  or  similar 
disorders  give  a  convincing  demonstration  of  their  un- 
naturalness  the  moment  they  take  possession  of  the 
human  frame;  whereas,  during  the  early  years  of  obes- 
ity, the  victim  is  quite  apt  to  feel  an  increase  of  vigor, 
and  enjoy  better  health  than  before  the  obesity  com- 
menced. 
.  It  is  not  alone  in  the  presence  of  a  surplus  amount  of 


DENSMORE.  83 

flesh  in  the  system,  encroaching  upon  the  vital  organs, 
and  interfering  with  their  natural  and  needed  activity, 
that  the  danger  of  obesity  lies;  the  obese  are  more  sus- 
ceptible to  attacks  of  illness  of  all  kinds  than  persons  of 
normal  weight.  In  the  matter  of  taking  cold,  the  obese 
are,  as  a  rule,  much  more  liable  than  they  were  before 
obesity  supervened.  Rheumatism  is  more  frequent  and 
more  severe.  The  same  is  true  of  the  frequency  and 
severity  of  attacks  of  sick  headache,  neuralgia,  and  simi- 
lar disorders.  Mr.  Banting,  whose  name  has  become 
famous  by  his  writings  upon  this  subject,  was  afflicted 
with  partial  deafness,  and  the  reduction  of  his  obesity 
largely  restored  his  hearing.  Inflammatory  diseases  of 
all  kinds,  as  before  said,  are  most  apt  to  attack  the  obese 
or  corpulent,  and  readers  will  be  able  to  perceive  from 
observation  among  their  own  acquaintances  that  the  cor- 
pulent are  not  as  long-lived  and  do  not  enjoy  as  good 
health  as  others.  A  gifted  hygienic  physician  writes: 

"  A  very  fat  person  rarely  has  a  sound  tissue  in  his 
body;  not  only  is  it  frequently  the  case  that  the  entire 
muscular  system  is  degenerated  with  fatty  particles,  but 
the  vital  organs — heart,  lungs,  brain,  kidneys,  liver,  etc. — 
are  at  the  same  time  mottled  throughout,  like  rust  spots 
in  a  steel  watchspring,  liable  to  fail  at  any  moment.  The 
gifted  Gambetta,  whom  Rochefort  styled  the  fatted  satrap, 
died — far  under  his  prime — because  of  his  depraved  con- 
dition; a  slight  gunshot  wound,  from  which  a  clean  man 
would  have  speedily  recovered,  ended  this  obese  diabetic's 
life.  Events  sufficiently  convincing  are  constantly  occur- 
ring o>n  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic;  every  hour  men  are 


84  DENSMOBE. 

rolling  into  ditches  of  death  because  they  do  not  learn 
how  to  live.  These  ditches  have  fictitious  names — grief, 
fright,  apoplexy,  kidney  troubles,  heart  disease,  etc. — 
but  the  true  name  is  chronic  self-indulgence." 

The  exciting  cause  of  obesity  is  the  ingestion  of  more 
food  than  the  system  requires,  together  with  the  weaken- 
ing of  the  excretory  organs,  which  results  in  the  failure 
of  the  system  to  adequately  throw  off  its  waste  matter. 
But  the  profound  and  primal  cause  of  obesity  will  one 
day  be  recognized  to  be  the  use  of  cereal  and  starch  foods. 
An  obese  person,  weighing  twenty-five,  fifty,  or  eighty 
pounds  more  than  is  natural,  may  be  given  a  diet  of 
flesh  with  water,  with  or  without  the  addition  of  starch- 
less  vegetables,  and  the  patient  will  be  gradually  but 
surely  reduced  to  his  normal  weight.  A  perseverance  in 
this  diet  is  sure  to  prevent  a  return  to  obesity.  It  is 
plain  that  without  starch  foods  corpulency  would  not 
exist.  Chemically  starch  foods  are  chiefly  carbon;  adi- 
pose tissue  is  also  carbon,  and  it  would  naturally  be  ex- 
pected that  a  diet  of  oil  and  the  fat  of  animal  flesh  would 
contribute  quite  as  much  to  obesity  as  bread  and  starch 
foods.  But  experience  proves  that  such  is  not  the  case. 
The  reason  for  this  is  not,  in  the  present  state  of  science, 
understood;  it  will  likely  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
starch  foods  undergo  a  complicated  process  of  digestion, 
whereas  oils  require  only  emulsion  to  render  them  assimi- 
lable by  the  system. 

If  an  autopsy  be  held  upon  the  body  of  an  obese  per- 
son, the  abnormal  weight  will  be  found  to  be  due  to  an 
accumulation  of  adipose  tissue  and  water — the  presence 


DENSMORE.  85 

of  water  in  the  tissue  is  plainly  visible  and  adds  con- 
siderably to  the  bulk.  From  this  fact  has  arisen  the 
practice  of  advising  obese  persons  to  drink  as  little  water 
as  possible.  A  moderate  amount  of  shrinkage  can  be 
accomplished  by  this  course;  but  it  is  one  which  we  do 
not  recommend.  Water  is  a  necessity  to  the  organism;  it 
is  invaluable,  not  only  in  keeping  up  the  volume  of  the 
blood,  but  in  aiding  the  excretion  of  waste  matter  through 
the  bowels  and  kidneys.  And  a  reduction  can  safely  and 
quite  rapidly  be  induced  by  a  nonstarch  diet  and  an 
unlimited  amount  of  water. 

The  digestion  of  starch  involves  great  loss  of  digestive 
and  nervous  energy.  The  reader  is  asked  not  to  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  starch  is  the  nourishment  com- 
monly used  for  keeping  up  the  heat  of  the  body,  and 
that,  as  starch,  it  is  insoluble  and  unassimilable;  that  it 
only  becomes  soluble  and  assimilable  by  a  chemical 
change,  first  from  starch  into  dextrine,  and  secondly  from 
dextrine  into  glucose.  Wheat  usually  contains  about  70 
per  cent  of  starch,  and  bread,  because  of  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  water,  35  to  40  per  cent.  The  ordinary  dried 
figs  of  commerce  are  said  to  contain  about  68  per  cent  of 
glucose,  which  glucose,  when  eaten,  is  in  the  identical  con- 
dition that  the  starch  of  cereal  food  is  converted  into 
after  a  protracted  and  nerve  force  wasting  digestion.  It 
would  seem  to  be,  as  before  said,  a  matter  of  the  merest 
common  sense  to  perceive  that  a  food  that  may  be  said 
to  be  predigested  by  nature,  and  that  is  all  ready  for 
absorption  and  assimilation  when  first  ingested,  requires 
much  less  strain  upon  the  nervous  system  than  a  food 


86  DENSMOBE. 

having  similar  chemical  elements,  but  which  require 
complicated  digestion  before  the  system  is  able  to  make 
use  of  them.  An  interesting  fact  in  regard  to  diet  is  in 
order  in  this  connection.  Invalids  the  world  over  are 
given  their  bread  in  the  form  of  toast.  The  lay  world 
is  generally  quite  ignorant  of  why  this  is  done,  and 
the  average  physician  is  also  ignorant.  It  is  because 
toasting  bread  until  it  becomes  brown  largely  converts 
the  starch  into  dextrine;  and  hence,  so  far  as  the  brown 
portion  is  concerned,  one  of  the  processes  of  digestion  is 
gone  through  before  the  bread  is  taken  into  the  stomach. 
It  will  be  found  that  the  thinner  the  slices  of  bread,  and  the 
more  thoroughly  they  are  toasted,  the  easier  digestion  will 
be,  and  when  all  portions  of  the  slice  of  bread  are 
thoroughly  toasted — not  burned,  but  still  changed  to  a 
deep  brown  color — it  will  be  found  to  be  still  more  easily 
digested  than  ordinary  toast.  The  sweet  fruits  are  re- 
moved a  step  beyond.  If  there  were  some  method  by 
which  a  piece  of  toast  could  undergo  a  second  transfor- 
mation, and  the  dextrine  be  converted  into  glucose,  it 
would  then,  in  all  probability,  be  substantially  as  easy  of 
digestion  as  the  sweet  fruits,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it 
would  already  be  glucose;  in  a  word,  no  digestion  would 
be  necessary. 

If  it  be  accepted  that  man's  natural  diet  is  fruit  and 
nuts — and  it  will  be  found  difficult  to  construct  any  other 
hypothesis  that  will  fulfill  all  the  conditions  and  requi- 
sites of  the  case — it  is  easy  to  see,  not  only  that  the  diet  of 
primitive  man  consisted  of  a  single  dish  or  food,  but  that 
euch  diet  was  continued  meal  after  meal,  and  day  after 


DENSMORE.  87 

day,  as  long  as  the  supply  from  a  given  tree  or  grove  held 
out.  Just  so  surely  as  the  not  overfed  lad  of  the  street 
has  a  better  appetite  and  relish  than  the  pampered  child 
of  fortune,  it  is  true  that  whoever  will  continuously  pur- 
sue a  diet  of  a  single  dish  of  simple  and  adequate  food  at 
a  meal  will  find  a  distinctly  better  relish  for  such  food 
than  is  possible  to  the  luxurious  diner-out,  or  to  any 
person  in  the  habit  of  eating  a  variety  of  foods  from  day 
to  day.  Soup  is  a  mistake  at  the  very  outset.  In  a  natu- 
ral state  man  would  get  all  the  water  needed  from  his 
fruits;  digestion  goes  forward  much  better  when  the  gas- 
tric juice  is  not  diluted  with  fluids.  If  not  enough  fresh 
fruit  is  taken  at  meals  to  afford  the  needed  amount  of 
water — and  most  people  will  find  their  digestive  powers 
too  weak  to  properly  digest  and  dispose  of  so  large  an 
amount  of  fruit  as  is  needed  for  this  purpose  —  it  will 
be  advisable  to  drink  from  a  half-pint  to  a  pint  of  water 
— preferably  pure  soft  or  distilled  water — an  hour  before 
eating,  which  provision  having  been  attended  to,  it  will 
be  found  that  no  drink  whatever  is  needed  at  meal-time; 
and  persistent  following  of  this  rule  will  show  the  great 
majority  of  persons  that  they  not  only  will  have  no 
inconvenience  in  doing  without  drink  at  meals,  but  that 
they  will  enjoy  such  meals  distinctly  more  than  those  in 
which  drink  forms  so  important  a  part.  The  experiments 
by  Dr.  Beaumont  showed  that  soup  made  no  progress 
toward  digestion  until  the  larger  share  of  the  liquid  was 
absorbed  into  the  circulation,  and  it  is  now  well  known 
that  many  soups  are  very  difficult  of  digestion. 
The  contention  that  bread,  cereals,  and  starch  foods 


88  DENSMORE. 

are  an  unnatural  and  injurious  food  for  man  is  confirmed 
by  reference  to  the  physical  conformation  of  the  digestive 
organs,  the  main  stomach  being  a  large,  and  the  second 
stomach  a  relatively  insignificant,  organ.  The  regimen  of 
which  cereal  and  starch  foods  form  the  basis  necessitates 
the  digestion  of  a  major  portion  of  our  food  in  the  second 
stomach,  which  entails  a  gradual,  ruinous  strain  upon  the 
nervous  system.  We  contend  that  fruits  and  nuts  and 
foods  similarly  digested  are  the  natural  and  physiologic 
foods  for  man,  being  a  diet  in  which  much  the  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  nourishing  elements  are  digested  in  the 
first  stomach,  and  only  an  insignificant  portion,  corre- 
sponding to  the  relative  size  of  the  organ,  is  relegated  to 
the  second  stomach  for  digestion. 

It  has  been  shown  that,  whereas  starch  foods,  unas- 
sisted by  the  irritating  effects  of  bran  and  coarse  grains, 
directly  tend  to  constipation,  fruits,  on  the  contrary, 
while  performing  the  same  office  in  the  system — namely? 
supporting  the  heat  of  the  body  and  the  vital  force — 
contain  an  acid  that  causes  a  secretion  of  fluid  in  the 
intestines,  and  hence  is  always  aperient;  moreover,  that 
fruit  food,  while  it  saves  the  expenditure  of  vital  force 
required  in  the  protracted  digestion  of  starch  foods, 
scarcely  needs  digestion  at  all,  but  is  already  in  a  con- 
dition to  be  absorbed  and  assimilated  when  first  ingested, 
and  likewise  contributes  to  a  prompt  action  of  the  excre- 
tory functions  from  the  fact  that  its  nutritive  elements 
are  readily  used  up  by  the  system;  whereas  starch  foods, 
which  are  necessarily  retained  in  the  system  some  hours 
longer  than  fruits  before  digestion  takes  place,  are  shown 


DENSMORE.  89 

by  this  prolonged  retention  to  have  a  necessarily  con- 
stipating as  well  as  nerve-prostrating  tendency. 

Mr.  Kowbotham  relates  most  interesting  and  startling 
cases  where  the  substitution  of  a  fruit  for  a  cereal  diet 
wrought  remarkable  benefits,  notably  in  the  case  of  the 
woman  who,  during  three  previous  confinements  and  the 
preceding  periods  of  gestation,  suffered  agonizing  pains 
and  distressing  illness,  and  in  a  fourth  confinement,  when 
fruit  was  substituted  for  bread  and  starchy  vegetables  for 
only  a  portion  of  the  period  of  gestation,  the  distressing 
ailments  that  had  been  engendered  during  the  early 
months  of  gestation  while  partaking  of  a  starch  diet 
were  entirely  overcome,  the  confinement  being  prompt 
and  painless,  and  the  power  to  resume  ordinary  duties 
returning  immediately. 

Sir  James  Crichton  Browne  clearly  proves  that  the 
natural  term  of  man's  life  is  at  least  a  hundred  years; 
and,  moreover,  that  the  usual  characteristics  of  old 
age,  as  lameness,  impaired  sight,  teeth,  and  hearing, 
grey  hair,  etc.,  are  not  naturally  the  results  of  old  age, 
but  arise  from  transgressions  of  physiologic  law.  Further, 
this  authority  clearly  proves  by  statistics  that  instead  of 
the  rate  of  longevity  being  lengthened,  as  is  usually  sup- 
posed, in  point  of  fact  it  is  decreasing.  Such  general 
results  clearly  indicate  a  general  cause;  and  since  it  is 
shown  that  bread,  cereals,  and  starchy  foods  are  not  man's 
natural  diet,  and  that  the  assimilation  of  these  foods  en- 
tails an  unnatural  strain  upon  the  digestive  functions 
and  a  waste  of  vital  power,  the  curtailment  of  longevity 


90  DENSMORE. 

in  modern  life  is  reasonably  explainable  on  the  hypothe- 
sis of  the  use  of  bread,  cereals,  and  starchy  foods. 

The  strain  and  waste  of  vital  force  required  in  the 
digestion  of  bread  and  starch  foods  is  itself  an  adequate 
reason  for  all  persons  suffering  from  these  causes  to  reach 
out  for  an  artificial  stimulant.  These  stimulants  are,  in 
the  first  instance,  seasonings  and  spices,  next  tea,  coffee, 
and  tobacco,  and  next  opium  and  alcohol.  And  while 
intemperance,  which  is  decimating  and  undermining 
England  and  America,  is  thus  shown  to  be  the  legitimate 
and  logical  outcome  of  cereal  food,  a  fruit  diet,  on  the 
contrary,  by  its  nourishing  and  satisfying  qualities,  its 
simplicity  and  completeness,  and  its  ease  of  digestion, 
calls  for  no  stimulants,  and  makes  intemperance  impossi- 
ble where  it  is  followed. 

A  discussion  of  the  natural  food  system  has  revealed — 
what  was  before  only  dimly  perceived — that  fruits  are 
aperient  by  virtue  of  the  chemical  action  of  an  acid 
which  they  contain;  whereas  bread,  cereals,  pulses,  and 
starch  vegetables  inevitably  have  a  constipating  effect, 
which  is  only  overcome  by  the  mechanical  and  inflam- 
matory action  of  the  rough  bran  of  the  wheat,  or  the 
rough  coats  of  other  grains  and  pulses.  This  continuous 
irritation  of  the  stomach  and  bowels,  if  persisted  in  for 
months  and  years,  is  sure  to  bring  about  chronic  inflam- 
mation and  an  eventual  breakdown.  If  the  bran  is 
coarsely  ground  this  breakdown  may  be  accomplished  in 
months;  if  finely  ground  it  is  likely  to  require  years. 
Thus  the  widespread  popularity  of  wholemeal  bread  and 


DENSMORE.     ^  ,.., 

~    --:.-_- 

coarse  oatmeal  is  a  great  delusion;  originating  with 
Sylvester  Graham  and  the  vegetarian  propaganda,  its 
influence  has  become  widespread,  and  has  far  outrun  the 
movement  from  which  it  sprung. 

Another  widespread  error  prevalent  among  vegetarians 
— and  one  the  influence  of  which  has  also  extended 
beyond  that  movement — is  the  belief  that  the  use  of 
butter,  fat,  and  oil  is  injurious.  That  this  teaching  is 
wholly  wrong  is  for  the  first  time  pointed  out  by  the  fruit 
and  nut  theory.  Nuts  having  been  shown  to  be  a  factor 
in  man's  naturaj  food,  it  is  plain  that  oil  or  fat  in  some 
form  is  an  indispensable  requisite;  and  this  explains  why 
it  is  that  the  southern  negro  as  surely  demands  fat  bacon 
with  his  maize  as  the  Esquimaux  is  sure  to  demand  large 
quantities  of  oil  and  blubber;  and  why  it  is  that  every 
race  of  man,  in  barbarism  or  civilization,  insists  upon 
vegetable  oil — as  in  Spain  and  Italy — or  upon  a  substi- 
tute in  the  form  of  butter,  cheese,  or  the  flesh  of  animals. 

Since  the  sweet  fruits  of  the  south,  together  with  nuts, 
are  the  natural  food  of  man,  a  physiologic  reason  is  given 
for  the  first  time  why  all  nations  and  races  of  men — being 
deprived  of  the  sweet  fruits  intended  for  their  use  by 
nature  —  insist  upon  sweets,  desserts,  and  confections, 
both  at  and  between  meals.  While  physiologists  and 
chemists  have  been  aware  that  the  sugar  of  fruits  is  glu- 
cose, and  all  ready  for  assimilation,  and  that  the  sugar 
from  cane,  beet-root,  maple,  sorghum,  and  vegetables  is 
insoluble  and  nonassimilable  by  the  system  until  after 
having  undergone  digestion,  both  in  the  stomach  and  in- 
testines, these  physicians  and  scientists  have  not  been 


92  DENSMORE. 

aware  that  rnan  has,  in  the  prolific  sweet  fruits  of  the 
south,  a  sugar  that  is  far  less  expensive  than  sugar 
manufactured  from  cane  or  beet-root,  and  which,  as  be- 
fore said,  requires  no  digestion,  and  hence  no  expenditure 
of  vital  force. 

The  physiologic  effect  of  salt,  pepper,  and  like  irritants, 
as  well  as  such  narcotics  and  stimulants  as  tea,  coffee, 
tobacco,  and  alcohol,  upon  the  system,  is,  first,  to  goad 
the  nerves  to  undue  action,  which  is  naturally  followed 
by  a  corresponding  depression.  This  continual  action 
and  reaction  serves  to  benumb  the  nervous  system  until, 
generally,  no  food  will  be  relished  unless  the  accustomed 
goad  in  the  form  of  salt  and  other  strong  seasonings  is 
administered;  and  if  the  narcotics  and  stimulants  (tea, 
coffee,  tobacco,  or  alcohol)  be  indulged  in,  a  still  further 
benumbing  and  destruction  of  the  nerves  is  accom- 
plished. 

Cereal,  pulse,  and  vegetable  foods  require  the  addition 
of  large  quantities  of  salt  to  neutralize  the  injurious  effect 
of  the  excessive  quantity  of  potash  contained  in  these 
vegetable  foods.  Fruit  and  nuts,  on  the  contrary,  are 
adapted  to  the  tastes  and  appetites  of  man  without  the 
addition  of  salt  or  other  irritants. 

The  science  of  forestry  shows  that  trees  are  a  necessary 
element  to  make  the  planet  habitable  by  man;  that  great 
spaces  which  are  now  rainless,  barren  wastes  were  once 
fertile  with  fruitful  products  and  dotted  with  trees,  which 
in  their  turn  insured  an  abundant  rainfall.  Cereal  agri- 
culture denudes  the  earth  of  trees  which  nature  so  abund- 
antly supplies,  to  make  room  for  the  plow  and  the  grain; 


DENSMORE.  93 

and  the  result  of  this  denudation  is  seen  in  America  in 
the  increasing  number  of  dried-up  beds  of  streams  that 
were  formerly  filled  with  running  water,  and  the  increas- 
ing number  of  hurricanes  and  tornadoes  with  which  that 
fertile  country  is  yearly  visited,  dealing  death  and  de- 
struction in  their  path.  In  the  discovery  that  fruits  and 
nuts  were  the  primal,  and  are  the  natural,  diet  of  man, 
science  points  out  a  food  which,  compared  with  bread  and 
cereals,  is  not  only  more  prolific,  more  easily  produced 
and  prepared  for  the  table,  more  easily  digested  and 
thereby  conserving  of  vital  force,  and  a  food  which  is 
itself  aperient  and  a  blood  purifier,  and  therefore  making 
for  health  and  longevity,  but  a  food  which  involves  the 
planting  of  orchards,  and  the  restoration  to  the  earth  of 
its  natural  and  needed  trees  with  their  foliage  and  bloom 
and  fruit.  In  short,  it  will  be  seen  that  as  the  race  in- 
creases in  numbers,  and  more  and  more  of  the  earth's 
surface  is  denuded  of  trees  to  make  way  for  the  plow  and 
corn,  the  logical  sequence  of  a  cereal  diet  is  to  a  great 
extent  to  denude  the  earth  of  trees,  which,  in  its  turn, 
causes  tornadoes,  droughts,  and  deserts;  whereas  the 
result  of  a  fruit  diet  is  to  restore  trees  to  the  earth,  and 
hasten  the  coming  of  the  prophesied  day  when  every  man 
will  sit  under  his  own  vine  and  fig  tree — paradise  re- 
gained. 

A  Survey  of  the  results  arising  from  the  substitution  of 
a  fruit  for  a  cereal  diet  reveals  other  changes  of  immense 
magnitude.  Agriculture  as  now  known  will  give  way  to 
horticulture;  and  the  exchange  and  commerce  of  the  world 
will  be  based  on  fruit  instead  of  grain. 


94  DENSMORE. 

If  the  correctness  of  the  position  taken  in  foregoing 
chapters  be  admitted,  namely,  that  it  is  as  natural  to  be 
well  as  to  be  born,  that  illness  is  always  the  result  of 
transgression  of  physiologic  law,  and  that  man's  natural 
term  of  life  is  120  years,  changes  still  vaster  than  the 
revolution  of  agriculture  and  commerce,  or  at  all  events 
of  far  greater  importance,  will  inevitably  follow.  Not 
only  will  the  chemists  and  drug-stores — so  far  as  the 
preparation  and  sale  of  drugs  and  remedies  are  con- 
cerned— be  done  away  with,  but  sending  for  a  physician 
for  any  other  purpose  than  surgery  will  be  unknown. 
Parturition  without  pain  will  be  considered  as  a  matter 
of  course.  Emaciation  and  obesity  will  be  seen  to  be 
the  result  of  the  transgression  of  physiologic  law,  abhor- 
rent and  deplorable.  These  diseases  are  correlated  in 
ways  of  which  there  is  now  no  thought  or  suspicion. 
They  are  both  the  result  of  prostration  of  the  organs  of 
nutrition.  Emaciation  is  abhorrent  in  that  it  simulates 
the  deformity  and  decrepitude  of  that  diseased  condition 
which  is  mistaken  for  old  age;  and  obesity,  while  not 
so  abhorrent  as  a  tumor  upon  one  side  of  the  body,  is 
yet  a  monstrous  deformity,  destructive  of  grace,  and  of 
"  the  human  form  divine." 

Beauty  will  come  to  be  recognized  as  no  more  the 
property  of  youth  than  of  old  age.  An  immature  apple 
or  peach  may  be  symmetrical,  but  it  does  not  reach  per- 
fection until  it  is  not  only  full  grown,  but  fully  matured 
as  well.  So,  too,  in  the  coming  time,  will  the  man  or 
woman  at  four  or  five  score  years  be  as  superior  in  the 
sense  of  beauty,  as  in  all  senses,  to  the  youth  or  maiden 


DENSMORE.  95 

of  twenty  as  the  brilliant  and  fragrant  mature  peach  is 
superior  to  the  colorless  and  odorless  one,  however  sym- 
metrical it  may  be. 

As  prophesied  by  Shelley,  in  the  coming  time  "the 
athletic  form  of  age,"  with  its  "open  and  unwrinkled 
brow,"  will  have  no  " gray  deformity,"  and  no  "deadly 
germ  of  languor  and  disease"  —  no  gray  hairs,  no 
wrinkles,  but  perfect  hearing,  clear  eyesight,  sound 
teeth,  elastic  step,  physical  vigor,  and  spiritual  content- 
ment. 

The  average  life  of  man  will  be  some  fourfold  greater 
than  at  present.  Adult  useful  life  now  begins  at  the  age 
of  twenty-five,  and  continues  only  twenty-five  to  thirty- 
five  years — the  exceptions  to  this  rule  are  not  common. 
When  man  comes  to  live  physiologically  he  will  enjoy 
between  ninety  and  a  hundred  years  of  vigorous  adult 
life,  or  more  than  threefold  what  he  now  enjoys.  But 
this  is  not  all.  Louis  Cornaro  taught  that  a  man  is  of 
no  real  worth  until  he  has  reached  the  age  of  fifty  years, 
and  gained  control  of  his  passions;  and  Sir  James  Crich- 
ton  Browne  teaches,  as  has  been  seen,  that  his  powers  of 
wisdom  do  not  develop  until  after  that  age.  At  the 
present  time,  those  who  reach  that  age  encounter  a  mul- 
titude of  infirmities,  and  find  their  usefulness  fettered 
with  premature  decrepitude.  How  different  to  this 
will  be  the  natural  life.  When  man  has  attained  to 
that  term  at  which  Cornaro  says  his  usefulness  begins, 
he  still  will  have  fifty  to  seventy  years  of  vigorous  work 
before  him.  And,  with  such  conditions,  what  useful  de- 
vices would  not  an  Edison  invent,  what  poems  a  Shelley 


96  DENSMORE. 

write.  Of  what  a  wealth  of  music  have  we  been  deprived 
by  the  death  of  Wagner  when  he  had  reached  only  half 
the  natural  term  of  life.  What  histories  might  not  Car- 
lyle  have  unearthed  and  chronicled  and  illumined  if  he 
had  been  free  from  his  aches  and  pains,  his  dyspepsia 
and  resultant  gloom,  and  were  still  with  us  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  full  vigor.  And  what  additional  contributions 
to  science  and  philosophy  might  we  not  have  had  from 
Herbert  Spencer  if,  during  his  years  of  work,  he  had  been 
freed  from  the  ill-health  that  has  accompanied  and  de- 
layed him,  and  if  he  still  had  forty  or  fifty  years  of  vigor- 
ous work  in  store. 


FROM 

HEALTH  BY  GOOD   LIVING. 

BY  W.  W.  HALL,  M,  D. 


All  machinery,  the  most  perfect  piece  of  mechanism 
which  ever  came  from  human  hands,  will  wear  out,  be- 
cause there  is  friction.  Its  cogs,  its  wheels,  its  bearings, 
its  axles,  and  its  cylinders  all  move  upon  one  another^ 
more  or  less  directly.  Such  motion  implies  friction,  and 
friction  causes  loss  of  substance  necessarily.  Millions  of 
money  are  expended  every  year  for  the  purchase  of  oils 
and  other  lubricants  to  lessen  the  tremendous  wear  and 
waste  in  the  running  of  our  locomotives,  the  trains  on  our 
railroads,  and  the  machinery  of  our  numberless  mills  and 
manufactories.  But  the  living  human  body  is  the  perfec- 
tion of  mechanism,  and  has  within  itself  the  power  of 
growth  and  development;  and  more,  it  makes  its  own 
repairs,  and  provides  its  own  lubricants;  it  works  inces- 
santly day  and  night  for  a  hundred  years.  It  never 
stops,  it  never  wears  out,  until  the  work  is  completed. 
It  is  made  of  its  hundreds  of  muscles,  and  bands,  and 
sockets,  and  hinges,  and  pulleys,  all  playing  upon  or 
dragging  across  each  other.  The  very  smallest  of  these 
motions  involves  waste;  indeed,  not  a  single  crook  of  the 
finger,  not  a  bend  of  the  arm,  not  a  twinkle  of  the  eye, 
not  a  thought  of  the  brain,  but  is  at  the  expense  of  some 

97 


98  HALL. 

solid  portion  of  the  human  machine;  and  yet,  at  the  end 
of  a  century,  it  remains  a  whole  in  all  its  parts;  while 
the  most  perfect  constructions  of  man  come  to  a  dead 
stop  in  a  very  few  months,  and  would  stand  still  forever, 
unless  some  new  cog,  or  pin,  or  pulley  was  supplied.  But 
the  tongue  which  speaks  to-day  spoke  a  hundred  years 
ago  just  as  well,  and  the  eyelid  winks  as  easily  at  four- 
score as  in  infancy;  it  does  not  even  wink  tiredly.  And 
all  this,  not  because  there  are  no  wastes  of  substance  in 
this  wonderful  frame  of  ours,  but  because  they  are  as 
promptly  repaired  as  made. 

The  stomach  is  a  combination  of  muscles,  hence  it  is 
called  an  organ;  it  is  in  the  nature  of  a  machine.  The 
work  which  the  stomach  performs  is  to  prepare  the  food 
for  yielding  its  warmth,  growth,  strength,  and  repair  to  the 
whole  body.  A  part  of  these  is  almost  instantaneously 
withdrawn  from  the  food  while  it  is  in  the  stomach;  other 
parts,  in  its  progress  through  other  portions  of  the  body 
downwards.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  an  ordinary 
meal  is  digested,  as  far  as  the  stomach  is  concerned,  in 
about  five  hours;  at  the  end  of  that  time  all  the  food  has 
been  passed  out  of  it;  it  is  empty,  and,  in  a  sense,  goes  to 
sleep,  but  not  for  long,  for  in  an  hour  or  two  certain  ves- 
sels connected  with  it  become  filled  with  a  fluid,  and  their 
distention  causes  the  sensation  of  hunger,  and  we  want 
to  eat  again;  no  sooner  is  this  done,  than  these  vessels 
which  caused  the  sensation  of  hunger  empty  their  con- 
tents in  among  the  food,  dissolving  it  and  preparing 
it  for  yielding  its  nutriment  to  the  system,  as  before  de- 
scribed, 


HALL.  99 

But  if  more  food  is  eaten  before  the  stomach  has  been 
emptied,  the  process  of  digestion  is  arrested  as  to  the 
food  which  was  first  taken,  and  does  not  go  on  until 
the  food  taken  later  has  been  brought  to  the  condition  in 
which  the  first  was,  and  then  all  goes  on  together. 

It  is,  however,  a  law  of  our  nature,  that  if  the  food 
taken  into  the  stomach  remains  there  too  long,  being  kept 
as  it  is  at  a  temperature  of  about  a  hundred  degrees,  it 
begins  to  sour,  just  as  any  moist  food  would  begin  to  sour 
if  kept  warm  for  the  same  time.  It  is  then  unfit  to  give 
nourishment  and  strength,  and  hence  does  not  answer  its 
legitimate  purpose. 

Another  ill  result  is,  the  food  being  imperfectly  di- 
gested, it  gives  an  imperfect  nutriment;  and,  as  this  im- 
perfect nutriment  is  the  material  out  of  which  new  blood 
is  made,  that  blood  is  imperfect  and  impure;  but,  being 
distributed  all  over  the  body,  it  not  only  does  not  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  system,  but  causes  an  unnatural 
sensation  or  condition  of  things  wherever  it  goes,  more 
particularly  to  parts  which,  from  any  cause,  have  been 
injured  or  debilitated.  Hence,  there  is  found  an  easy 
explanation  of  the  many  and  varied  complaints  which 
dyspeptics  have,  scarcely  any  two  being  alike  in  the  com- 
bination of  their  symptoms;  all,  however,  agreeing  in  one 
thing,  that  they  are  wretched,  that  life  is  a  burden,  and 
enjoyment  impossible. 

The  tendency  of  down-town  luncheons  upon  the  health 
and  morals  of  all  ought  to  be  pointed  out.  Every  mer- 
chant proposes  to  himself  the  general  plan  of  "  taking  a 
snack,"  a  "  hasty  plate  of  soup,"  or  some  other  form  of 


100  HALL. 

light  repast  at  noon,  so  as  to  prevent  the  stomach  becom- 
ing too  empty,  or  the  system  from  too  great  exhaustion 
from  the  long  interval  between  breakfast  and  the  regular 
dinner  at  four  or  five  o'clock,  or  later.  The  object  is 
good,  and  the  philosophy  of  it  is  founded  on  true  physi- 
ological reasons;  but  the  manner  of  the  performance 
makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world.  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  no  regularity  in  the  lunch;  and  regularity,  order, 
is  Nature's  first  law.  Every  business  man  will  confess 
that  emergencies  of  trade  and  traffic  are  such  that  the 
time  of  taking  lunch  varies  several  hours,  and  sometimes 
is  forgotten  altogether,  until  it  is  too  late  to  take  one 
without  interfering  with  the  regular  dinner  in  the  after- 
noon. There  is  no  habit  of  the  body,  no  function  of  any 
organ,  which  will  not  be  injuriously  affected,  if  not  de- 
stroyed, by  irregular  action  or  working.  All  know  the 
value  of  regular  sleep;  and  yet  cases  are  given  in  medical 
works  where  persons  have  become  deranged  by  con- 
tinuously broken  sleep,  or  have  fallen  into  such  a  habit 
of  wakefulness  that  an  uneasy  sleep  of  three  or  four 
hours  was  all  that  could  be  had  in  any  twenty-four. 
Nature  can  never  be  baffled  with  impunity.  Perhaps  no 
other  one  thing  engenders  so  many  and  such  a  variety  of 
diseases  as  constipation  of  the  bowels,  which  is  brought 
on,  in  innumerable  cases,  by  the  person  resisting  the  calls 
of  nature,  for  the  sake  of  some  fancied  convenience  or 
some  unwisely  imagined  necessity.  If  this  is  done,  even 
for  a  short  time,  Nature  seems,  as  it  were,  to  become  in- 
dignant, and  calls  no  more;  and  a  habit  is  sefc  up  which 
will  make  the  subject  a  martyr  to  some  form  of  human 


HALL.  101 

suffering  as  long  as  life  lasts.  So  with  hunger  and  the 
stomach;  if  the  sense  of  hunger  is  resisted,  if  the  stomach 
is  not  supplied  with  food  at  stated  times,  it  loses  its  tone, 
its  vigor,  its  power  to  work,  and  dyspepsia  follows,  to  sour 
the  disposition,  to  irritate  the  temper,  to  depress  the 
spirits,  to  change  the  whole  moral  nature,  causing  un- 
happiness,  not  only  to  the  sufferer,  but  more  or  less  to  all 
those  who  may  have  to  meet  him  in  business  or  in 
domestic  life. 

Men  do  not  dine  down  town  long  before  they  get  into 
the  habit  of  "  taking  something"  at  their  meals.  In  fact, 
most  of  the  eating-houses  calculate  to  make  as  much  in 
the  way  of  profit  on  what  their  customers  drink  as  on 
what  they  eat;  and  boys,  and  clerks,  and  young  men, 
very  soon  begin  to  feel  that  it  looks  manly  to  call  for 
"  something"  at  lunch.  They  think  it  adds  to  their  impor- 
tance in  the  estimation  of  the  waiters  to  take  a  glass  of 
wine,  or  beer,  or  other  drink;  just  as,  a  little  earlier,  they 
thought  it  "  manly"  to  smoke  a  cigar  or  "  take  a  chew." 
Men  often  invite  their  friends  to  go  and  take  a  lunch  with 
them,  when  it  is  expected,  as  a  matter  of  course,  some 
form  of  stimulant  will  be  ordered;  this  is  sooner  or  later 
reciprocated;  and  thus  the  man.  who,  a  while  ago,  had 
taken  a  glass  only  occasionally,  finds  himself  taking  it 
every  day;  and  if,  from  any  cause,  he  does  not  get  it, 
there  is  a  disagreeable  sensation  of  wanting  some  thing, 
arid  this  is  not  appeased  until  the  accustomed  glass  is 
supplied,  with,  as  a  rule,  its  attending  results. 

The  common  vice  of  our  people  in  the  United  States, 
in  both  town  and  country,  in  city  and  village,  among  old 


102  HALL. 

and  young,  rich  and  poor,  is  rapid  eating,  when  the 
stomach,  like  a  dark  bottle  which  is  attempted  to  be 
filled  with  a  funnel,  gets  full,  and  overruns  before  one 
knows  it.  There  are  two  ill  effects  from  hasty  feeding; 
the  food  expands  considerably,  both  by  increased  warmth 
and  by  its  being  divided  and  liquefied,  so  that  if  the 
stomach  is  not  full  when  one  ceases  to  eat,  it  will  be  full 
enough  in  a  very  few  minutes  by  the  heating  and  lique- 
fying process;  thus  it  happens  when  a  person  is  called 
from  the  table,  he  may  feel  as  if  he  could  very  easily 
have  eaten  more. 

Healthful  digestion  is  sometimes  described  as  a  churn- 
ing process;  the  muscles  are  in  continual  motion,  press- 
ing the  food  forward  in  a  kind  of  circular  direction;  and 
to  do  this,  there  must  be  room  for  a  "  purchase"— a 
point  to  push  from  and  an  open  field  to  push  to,  so  that 
it  is  easily  seen  that  when  there  is  an  unnatural  disten- 
tion,  there  is  no  more  room  for  work  than  for  a  man  so 
beset  by  a  crowd  that  he  cannot  move  his  arms  from  con- 
tact with  the  body.  There  being  no  room  for  work,  the 
food  cannot  be  property  manipulated,  is  kept  longer  than 
nature  designed,  and  the  result  is  long  hours  of  uncom- 
fortableness,  which  dyspeptics,  and  heavy  feeders,  and 
rapid  eaters  have  intelligent  experience  of. 

Chew  food  deliberately,  because  bits  of  food  in  the 
stomach  are  like  pieces  of  ice  in  a  glass  of  water;  the  ice 
is  melted  in  thin  layers,  from  without  inward,  and  any 
one  can  see  that  the  pieces  of  ice  disappear  with  a  rapid- 
ity proportioned  to  their  smallness,  and  with  the  same 
rapidity  is  the  water  cooled.  Precisely  so  is  it  with  the 


HALL.  103 

particles  of  food  in  the  stomach:  each  one  is  acted  upon 
on  the  outer  surface  by  the  gastric  juice  in  which  it 
floats;  and  if  each  piece  has  been  slowly  and  leisurely 
chewed  with  good  teeth,  it  enters  the  stomach  so  well 
divided  or  cut  up  that  it  is  taken  hold  of  by  the  gastric 
juice,  and  wholly  dissolved  in  a  very  short  time. 

It  was  observed  by  Beaumont  that  when  meat  or  other 
food  was  cut  up  very  fine,  in  smaller  than  pea-sized 
pieces,  it  seemed  to  digest  quite  as  soon  and  easily  as  when 
it  was  chewed  and  swallowed  in  the  natural  way. 

There  are  two  essential  requisites  of  a  healthy  diges- 
tion. There  must  be  gastric  juice.  There  must  be 
strength  in  the  muscles  of  the  stomach  to  contract  upon 
the  food  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  it  in  motion  in  the  gas- 
tric juice,  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  its  dissolution. 

Medicine  cannot  make  gastric  juice.  As  seen  awhile 
ago,  it  is  a  liquid  prepared  as  a  consequence  of  the  need 
of  repair;  this  need  of  replenishment  and  repair  is 
occasioned  by  a  previous  waste  or  wear;  that  waste  or 
wear  cannot  be  brought  about  without  motion  of  the 
muscles,  which  is  expressed  by  the  word  ''exercise";  it  is 
muscular  exercise  which  creates  gastric  juice.  Without 
gastric  juice  there  never  can  be  any  digestion  of  food,  any 
converting  of  it  into  healthy  blood;  and  here  at  this  point 
are  found  the  countless  millions  of  failures  in  the  cure  of 
dyspepsia,  it  being  sought  to  be  done  in  every  possible 
way  than  in  the  procuring  of  gastric  juice,  the  absolutely 
essential  element  under  all  conceivable  circumstances. 
It  is  so  much  easier  to  swallow  medicine  every  day  than 
to  go  to  work,  that  human  ingenuity  has  been  taxed  to 


104  HALL. 

the  utmost  to  find  some  thing  which  will  make  the  stom- 
ach digest  the  food.  Acting  on  the  presumption  that 
dyspepsia  was  simply  a  weak  stomach,  every  conceivable 
tonic  and  stimulant  has  been  given  to  "strengthen  the 
stomach";  but,  even  supposing  it  were  accomplished,  a 
previous  prime  necessity  existed  in  the  presence  of  gas- 
tric juice,  which  is  a  product  of  muscular  exercise,  volun- 
tary or  involuntary,  and  of  nothing  else  known  to  man. 

It  is  seldom  advisable  to  eat  by  weight  and  measure; 
hence,  in  adapting  food  to  the  capabilities  of  the  stomach, 
rather  than  the  needs  of  the  system,  it  is  better  to  follow 
a  simple  rule.  If  discomfort  is  experienced  after  a  meal, 
then  at  the  next  take  less  and  less,  until  the  amount  of 
food  is  so  small  that  no  discomfort  whatever  is  experi- 
enced afterwards;  continue  this  amount  for  a  few  days, 
and  the  stomach,  as  well  as  the  whole  body,  will  become 
stronger;  for  the  small  amount  eaten,  having  been  well 
digested,  and  converted  into  nourishing  and  pure  blood, 
gives  many  times  more  strength  and  comfort  than  if 
a  much  larger  quantity  of  food  had  been  taken,  and 
which,  not  being  properly  handled,  would  have  been  a 
hindrance,  instead  of  a  help,  in  building  up  the  system. 
After  living  a  few  days  in  the  manner  described,  the 
stomach  getting  stronger  with  the  rest  of  the  body,  a  little 
more  food  may  be  ventured  upon,  and  in  a  day  or  two  a 
little  more  still,  with  the  result  of  increasing  general 
health,  strength,  and  vigor. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  happy  time  will  come 
when  we  may  be  able  to  remedy  disease  by  the  free  use 
of  sugar  candy,  cordials,  fruit,  and  roast  beef.  The  world 


HALL.  105 

has  gradually  fallen  into  the  use  of  medicine  in  disease 
from  the  simple  observation  of  cause  and  effect;  and  the 
result  has  been  that  the  practice  of  medicine,  in  the 
hands  of  the  educated  physician,  has  been  reduced  to  a 
science,  in  several  directions  to  a  mathematical  cer- 
tainty. 

It  has  been  observed  that  tartar  emetic,  introduced 
into  the  stomach,  caused  vomiting;  it  has  been  used  a 
million  times,  and  a  million  times  has  exhibited  the  same 
effect;  hence,  when  tartar  emetic  is  swallowed,  we  feel 
sure  of  the  result.  The  next  step  was  a  deduction.  If 
tartar  emetic,  taken  into  the  stomach,  causes  vomiting, 
causes  the  stomach  to  empty  itself,  then,  if  there  is  any 
thing  in  the  stomach  which  we  want  out  of  it,  it  is  a  very 
natural  conclusion  that  tartar  emetic  is  "good  for"  mak- 
ing the  stomach  "stand  and  deliver."  It  came  by 
degrees  to  be  noticed  that  opium  caused  sleepiness  if 
swallowed;  a  million  times  opium  was  swallowed,  and  a 
million  times  were  the  recipients  made  sleepy;  hence  the 
very  natural  inference  that  opium  was  "  good  for"  put- 
ting a  man  to  sleep;  and  when  men  want  to  go  to  sleep, 
they  know  that  they  can  do  so  if  they  swallow  a  little 
opium.  Hence  the  various  things  which  are  used  for 
remedies  in  disease  have  come  by  degrees  into  use — 
some  by  accident,  others  by  induction,  and  all  more  or 
less  relied  upon.  The  general  idea  of  medicine  is, 
then,  that  it  is  some  thing  which  will  remove  some 
disagreeable  sensation,  some  "  symptom"  of  disease.  It 
is,  then,  fair  to  infer  that  whatever  uniformly  removes  a 
symptom  is  a  medicine.  If  a  man  is  as  blue  as  indigo, 


106  HALL. 

in  reference  to  depression  of  spirits  caused  by  the  want 
of  a  dollar  to  buy  him  a  dinner,  give  him  a  ten  dollar 
bill,  and  he  will  be  one  of  the  happiest  of  mortals — until 
the  ten  is  gone;  a  million  times  give  a  ten,  and  a  million 
times  will  he  brighten  up  most  amazingly,  and  naturally 
we  begin  to  feel  a  perfect  conviction  that  money  is  "  good 
for"  low  spirits  and  very  many  other  "  symptoms";  hence 
money  is  a  medicine,  efficient,  easy  to  take,  and,  like  all 
other  "simple"  remedies,  "will  do  no  harm  if  it  does  no 
good."  In  the  same  line  of  reasoning  it  will  be  shown 
that  various  articles  of  food  are  medicinal,  are  good  for 
removing  symptoms  of  a  disease,  and  hence  can  be  used 
medicinally  in  a  considerable  variety  of  cases  of  actual 
suffering;  and  the  time  may  be  nearer  than  is  generally 
supposed  when  a  sick  man  will  be  restored  to  permanent 
health  by  good  eating. 


FBOM   AN    ESSAY   BY 

DR.  HELEN  DENSMORE. 


Published  in  London  Vegetarian,  February  4»  18S8. 

When  a  man  who  has  been  addicted  to  the  use  of 
stimulating  drinks  desires  to  reform,  and  stops  the  use  of 
such  drinks,  taking  water  instead,  he  is  quite  apt  to  feel 
ill  at  first.  He  often  loses  his  appetite,  grows  thin,  and 
finds  himself  in  a  less  vigorous  state  physically;  but  ho 
knows  well  enough  that  if  he  resumes  his  accustomed 
drams,  he  will  soon  brace  up,  and  for  the  time  feel  better. 
Similar  experience  is  likely  to  follow  the  breaking  off  of 
any  poison  habit.  Indeed,  it  is  the  opinion  of  eminent 
medical  authorities  that,  after  the  habit  of  arsenic  eating 
has  been  followed  for  many  years,  it  is  impossible  to 
wholly  discontinue  it  without  fatal  results.  This  condi- 
tion is  well  understood  in  regard  to  leaving  off  tobacco, 
morphine,  chloral,  etc.,  and,  when  lassitude  and  loss  of 
strength  follow,  no  apprehension  is  felt. 

The  truth  is,  that  errors  in  diet  become  a  fixed  habit 
to  which  the  system  will  cling,  notwithstanding  injuri- 
ous results;  tea  and  coffee  are  unnatural  stimulants,  and 
when  one  has  used  them  for  thirty,  forty,  or  fifty  years, 
the  habit  is  fixed,  and  nature,  true  to  her  purpose  of 
preserving  life  at  all  hazards,  proceeds  to  adjust  the 
system  to  the  intruder  in  the  most  favorable  manner. 

107 


108  DR.  HELEN  DENSMORE. 

Physiologists  explain  that  a  dose  of  poison  strong  enough 
to  kill  instantly  may  be  divided  into  small  doses,  and 
taken  at  intervals,  and  the  effect  not  be  noticeable  at 
the  time,  but  that  it  becomes  cumulative  in  effect;  and? 
though  it  takes  much  longer,  it  does  its  full  work  in 
time.  So  the  results  of  injurious  diet  is  cumulative,  and 
has  its  effect  in  ten,  twenty,  forty,  or  more  years,  in 
rheumatism,  gout,  kidney  affections,  cancer,  pulmonary 
consumption,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter;  and 
when  the  system  is  released  from  this  cause  of  trouble, 
when  the  habit  is  changed  from  the  diet  of  civilization 
to  a  more  natural  one,  relieved  of  the  necessity  of  stand- 
ing guard  at  the  digestive  tube  to  dispose  of  the  poison- 
ous elements  daily  taken  into  the  stomach  to  the  best 
possible  advantage,  nature  at  once  proceeds  to  set  up  a 
curative  action — the  elimination  of  accumulated  disease 
germs;  and  this  action  is  quite  likely  to  create  some  of 
the  same  symptoms  seen  in  the  case  of  the  reformed 
drunkard,  viz.,  lassitude,  loss  of  appetite,  dyspeptic  symp- 
toms, etc.,  for  a  period.  Then  will  follow  all  the  joys — 
and  they  can  hardly  be  overdrawn — that  are  painted  by 
the  most  enthusiastic  devotee  of  a  natural  diet. 

If  it  were  true  that,  after  so  many  years  of  abuse,  we 
could  stop  the  wrong  course  of  living,  and  all  the  bless- 
ings of  health  follow  immediately,  it  would  be  proof  that 
this  disobedience  is  not  so  bad  after  all.  When  we  con- 
sider the  wonderful  mechanism  of  the  human  organism, 
the  certainty  with  which  all  of  its  organs  perform  their 
allotted  work,  the  inevitable  penalty  that  has  to  be  paid 
for  every  physiological  sin  that  is  committed,  and  then 


DR.  HELEN  DENSMOBE.  109 

consider  the  transgressions  committed  for  so  many  years 
before  the  bills  of  credit  began  to  mature,  we  ought  not 
to  be  surprised  that  it  takes  a  few  years  to  repair  the  dam- 
age done  in  a  lifetime;  and,  instead  of  complaining  at 
the  discomfort  entailed,  we  should  rather  be  thankful 
that  it  is  not  too  late;  that  our  accounts  are  not  closed, 
and  that  we  are  not  totally  bankrupt  in  health. 

It  is  true  that  some  do  make  this  change  with  very 
little  or  no  discomfort.  Such  persons  are  favored  with 
strong  constitutional  powers  that  have  enabled  them  to 
resist  the  inroads  of  disease  and  the  development  of 
hereditary  tendencies,  or  are  free  from  such  tendencies. 
Others,  having  strong  digestive  powers,  are  enabled  to 
digest  and  assimilate  unaccustomed  food  from  the  first, 
and  so  get  on  comparatively  well;  being  well  nourished, 
the  craving  for  the  stimulating  foods  abandoned  is  not  so 
great,  and  improvement  in  the  physical  condition  begins 
to  be  felt  immediately.  This  would  happen  generally 
with  the  young  at  once.  But  by  far  the  larger  number 
meet  the  curative  action  sooner  or  later,  and  it  may  not 
come  for  some  time. 

With  the  drunkard,  the  curative  action  is  recognized 
at  once;  all  know  that  it  is  not  the  water  that  is  making 
him  ill,  but  the  alcoholic  poison  which  he  had  been  be- 
fore accustomed  to.  So  mother,  sister,  sweetheart,  and 
friends,  with  one  accord,  appeal  to  him  to  keep  up  his 
courage,  notwithstanding  his  apparently  bad  symptoms. 
How  differently  is  the  poor  dyspeptic  treated  when  he 
attempts  to  reform  in  diet !  With  one  accord  his  friends 
try  to  prevail  upon  him  to  abandon  it;  assure  him  that 


110  DR.  HELEN  DENSMOBE. 

he  is  killing  himself;  read  him  tomes  of  medical  author- 
ities to  show  that  he  is  impoverishing  his  blood  by  this 
"low  diet";  and  when  he  returns  to  the  old  injurious 
diet,  just  as  with  the  dram  of  spirits  in  the  case  of  the 
drunkard,  the  effect  is  to  stop  the  curative  action;  he 
feels  braced  up,  and  this  is  taken  as  proof  that  he  was 
all  wrong,  and  the  accumulation  of  disease  commences 
again. 

It  is  well  known,  when  one  has  become  accustomed 
to  the  poison  habit  of  opium,  alcohol,  or  tobacco,  that  it 
is  a  slavery  difficult  to  overthrow.  It  will  be  found  that 
the  habit  of  eating  improper  food,  when  once  formed,  is 
also  difficult  to  be  overcome;  and  if  to  this  there  has  been 
added  the  baneful  habit  of  tea  and  coffee  drinking,  the 
inconvenience  is  increased.  The  difficulty  of  overcom- 
ing these  pernicious  habits  is  made  still  greater  when  the 
attitude  of  one's  companions,  friends,  and  society  is  taken 
into  account. 

A  mistake  is  often  made  in  counseling  a  too  abrupt 
change.  If  one  is  young  or  has  great  vigor,  and  the 
powers  of  digestion  and  assimilation  have  not  been  too 
much  weakened  by  unnatural  foods,  and  the  necessary 
quantity  of  natural  foods  can  be  easily  digested  and  as- 
similated, such  a  person  can  be  advantageously  put  upon 
fruit  and  nuts  at  once,  and  all  will  go  well.  But  most 
persons  have  so  long  depended  upon  improper  foods  for  a 
large  share  of  their  nourishment  that  their  digestive  or- 
gans have  become  weakened;  and  if  such  people  change 
abruptly  their  weakened  stomachs  may  not  have  the  re- 
quired vigor  necessary  to  abstract  needed  nourishment. 


DB.  HELEN  DENSMOEE.  %£/  111 

But  after  all  these  difficulties  are  fully  acknowledged 
and  appreciated,  and  due  weight  allowed  for  all  the 
drawbacks  it  is  possible  to  discover,  there  is  quite 
enough  of  blessedness  and  compensation  to  charm  any 
earnest  soul  who  has  an  ambition  to  take  his  birth- 
right— Health.  It  is  just  this  ambition  for  health  that 
is  sadly  lacking  in  the  modern  mind.  There  was  a 
glimpse  of  sanity  in  the  old  Spartan  practice  of  putting 
to  death  the  weak,  sickly,  and  deformed  children  at 
birth.  It  was  a  dim  perception  of  the  truth  that  to  be 
ill  is  a  monstrosity.  And  when  we  learn  that  illness  is 
always  the  result  of  disobedience  to  law,  when  we  come 
to  know  that  it  need  never  be — that  it  comes  only  with 
the  violation  of  plainly  written  laws  of  health — we  shall 
see  an  entirely  different  attitude  towards  illness,  in  what- 
ever form  it  makes  its  appearance.  And,  moreover, 
when  we  learn  that  the  pleasures  of  life,  judged  from 
the  sensuous  standpoint  alone,  are  much  greater  when 
following  this  simple  diet — that  we  enjoy  more  physical 
delight  in  the  newness  and  fullness  of  increased  vital- 
ity, clearer  brains,  stronger  powers  in  every  direction, 
and  no  illness,  lassitude,  or  fear  of  these — surely  this 
will  be  motive  strong  enough,  when  once  conviction  is 
secured,  to  induce  all  men  and  women,  whatever  their 
station  in  life,  to  adopt  it. 


FROM  "  EDUCATION,"  BY 

HERBEKT    SPENCER. 


Consider  the  ordinary  tastes  and  the  ordinary  treat- 
ment of  children.  The  love  of  sweets  is  conspicuous 
and  almost  universal  among  them.  Probably  ninety- 
nine  people  in  a  hundred  presume  that  there  is  nothing 
more  in  this  than  gratification  of  the  palate,  and  that, 
in  common  with  other  sensual  desires,  it  should  be  dis- 
couraged. The  physiologist,  whose  discoveries  lead  him 
to  an  ever-increasing  reverence  for  the  arrangement  of 
things,  suspects  something  more  in  this  love  of  sweets 
than  is  currently  supposed;  and  inquiry  confirms  the 
suspicion.  He  finds  that  sugar  plays  an  important  part 
in  the  vital  processes.  Both  saccharine  and  fatty  matters 
are  eventually  oxidized  in  the  body;  and  there  is  an  ac- 
companying evolution  of  heat.  Sugar  is  the  form  to 
which  sundry  other  compounds  have  to  be  reduced  be- 
fore they  are  available  as  heat-making  food;  and  this 
formation  of  sugar  is  carried  on  in  the  body.  Not  only 
is  starch  changed  into  sugar  in  the  course  of  digestion, 
but  it  has  been  proved  by  M.  Claude  Bernard  that  the 
liver  is  a  factory  in  which  other  constituents  of  food  are 
transformed  into  sugar,  the  need  for  sugar  being  so 
imperative  that  it  is  even  thus  produced  from  nitroge- 
nous substances  when  no  others  are  given.  Now,  when 

112 


HERBERT  SPENCER.  113 

to  the  fact  that  children  have  a  marked  desire  for  this 
valuable  heat  food,  we  join  the  fact  that  they  have  a 
usually  marked  dislike  to  that  food  which  gives  out  the 
greatest  amount  of  heat  during  oxidation  (namely,  fat), 
we  have  reason  for  thinking  that  excess  of  the  one  com- 
pensates for  defect  of  the  other — that  the  organism  de- 
mands more  sugar,  because  it  cannot  deal  with  much  fat. 
Again,  children  are  fond  of  vegetable  acids.  Fruits  of  all 
kinds  are  their  delight;  and,  in  the  absence  of  any  thing 
better,  they  will  devour  unripe  gooseberries,  and  the 
sourest  of  crabs.  See,  then,  the  discord  between  the  in- 
stinctive wants  of  children  and  their  habitual  treatment. 
Here  are  two  dominant  desires,  which  in  all  probability 
express  certain  needs  of  the  child's  constitution;  and  not 
only  are  they  ignored  in  the  nursery  regimen,  but  there  is 
a  general  tendency  to  forbid  the  gratification  of  them. 
Bread  and  milk  in  the  morning,  tea  and  bread  and  butter 
at  night,  or  some  dietary  equally  insipid,  is  rigidly  ad- 
hered to We  contend  that,  were  children  allowed 

daily  to  partake  of  those  more  sapid  edibles  for  which 
there  is  a  physiological  requirement,  they  would  rarely 
exceed,  as  they  now  mostly  do  when  they  have  the  oppor- 
tunity. Were  fruits,  as  Dr.  Combe  recommends,  "  to  con- 
stitute a  part  of  the  regular  food  "  (given,  as  he  advises, 
not  between  meals,  but  along  with  them),  there  would  be 
none  of  that  craving  which  prompts  the  devouring  of 
crabs  and  sloes.  And  similarly  in  other  cases. 

This  relatively  greater  need  for  nutriment  being  ad- 
mitted, as  it  must  be,  the  question  that  remains  is,  Shall 
we  meet  it  by  giving  an  excessive  quantity  of  what  may 


114  HERBERT  SPENCER. 

be  called  dilute  food,  or  a  moro  moderate  quantity  of  con- 
centrated food?  The  nutriment  obtainable  from  a  given 
weight  of  meat  is  obtainable  only  from  a  larger  weight  of 
bread,  or  from  a  still  larger  weight  of  potatoes,  and  so  on. 
To  fulfill  the  requirement,  the  quantity  must  be  increased 
as  the  nutritiveness  is  diminished.  Shall  we,  then,  re- 
spond to  the  extra  wants  of  the  growing  child  by  giving 
an  adequate  quantity  of  food  as  good  as  that  of  adults? 
Or,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  its  stomach  has  to  dispose 
of  a  relatively  larger  quantity  even  of  this  good  food, 
shall  we  further  tax  it  by  giving  an  inferior  food  in  still 
greater  quantity? 

The  answer  is  tolerably  obvious.  The  more  the  labor 
of  digestion  is  economized,  the  more  energy  is  left  for 
the  purpose  of  growth  and  action.  The  functions  of  the 
stomach  and  intestines  cannot  be  performed  without  a 
large  supply  of  blood  and  nervous  power;  and  in  the 
comparative  lassitude  that  follows  a  hearty  meal,  every 
adult  has  proof  that  this  supply  of  blood  and  nervous 
power  is  at  the  expense  of  the  system  at  large.  If  the 
requisite  nutriment  is  obtained  from  a  great  quantity  of 
innutritions  food,  more  work  is  entailed  on  the  viscera  than 
when  it  is  obtained  from  a  moderate  quantity  of  nutri- 
tious food.  This  extra  work  is  so  much  loss,  which  in 
children  shows  itself  either  in  diminished  energy  or  in 
smaller  growth,  or  in  both.  The  inference  is,  then,  that 
they  should  have  a  diet  which  combines,  as  much  as  pos- 
sible, nutritiveness  and  digestibility. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  BOOK  OF  THE 

RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 


It  is  hard  to  believe  that  there  are  disinterested  people 
in  the  world.  That  one  or  more  persons  should  seek  to 
investigate  the  great  laws  of  life  for  the  purpose  only  of 
benefiting  humanity  is  too  strange  to  be  true.  The  con- 
dition of  the  human  heart  is  such  that  it  can  accept  no 
act  of  pure  philanthropy  as  unalloyed.  To  lose  faith  in 
our  fellow-beings  is  sad. 

The  green-hued  cynicism  which  stains  the  heart  is  the 
outgrowth  of  an  experience  composed  of  disappointments. 
Have  you  ever  met  one  true,  noble  soul  on  earth?  Or  has 
all  your  life  been  one  continuous  confirmation  of  the 
cynic's  distrust  of  human  honesty?  There  are  so  many 
pretenders  abroad  who  seek  to  win  our  confidence  under 
the  guise  of  honest  purpose  that  it  is  hard  to  know  whom 
we  shall  believe. 

Therefore,  when  the  Ralston  Health  Club  declares  that 
it  is  a  charity,  and  that  the  sole  object  of  its  existence  is 
to  aid  in  the  creation  of  a  new  race  of  men  and  women, 
it  must  expect  to  meet  either  the  quiet  doubts  of  those 
who  have  been  unfortunate  in  their  dealings  with  others, 

(116) 


116  RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 

or  the  open  hostility  of  evil  thinkers;  for  as  the  heart  is, 
so  the  mind  thinketh. 

CREED   OP    EALSTONITES. 

ARTICLE  I. — We  believe  in  the  existence  of  a  LIFE 
PRINCIPLE,  or  vitality,  buoyancy,  or  spiritual  energy, 
which  is  superabundant  in  good  health,  and  is  lacking 
in  sickness,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  lives  of  persons.  For 
convenience  of  name  we  call  this  vitality  glame;  and 
we  believe  that  it  dwells  in  the  universe,  and  may  be 
drawn  into  the  human  body  by  an  act  of  the  WILL  ex- 
pressed in  certain  exercises  invented  for  that  purpose. 

ARTICLE  II. — We  believe  that  the  absence  of  this  vi- 
tality is  the  cause  of  ill-health,  and  is  also  caused 
by  ill-health;  that,  during  sickness,  the  buoyancy  of  the 
body  droops,  but  returns  again  with  the  restoration  of 
health;  and  that  vitality,  buoyancy,  cheerfulness,  glanie, 
or  by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called,  is  an  impelling 
force,  which  may  direct  all  the  impulses  of  growth  and 
development. 

ARTICLE  III. — We  believe  that  (as  no  scientist  has 
hitherto  made  a  special  study  of  this  LIFE  PRINCIPLE)  the 
ignorance  of  the  human  race  upon  this,  the  most  vital 
fact  of  existence,  has  much  to  do  with  the  prevalence  of 
disease,  the  untimely  approach  of  old  age,  and  death. 

ARTICLE  IV. — We  believe  that  it  is  possible  for  man 
(by  special  study,  experiment,  and  investigation)  to  learn 
about  the  LIFE  PRINCIPLE  OR  VITAL  SPARK,  and  to  draw  it 
into  the  body,  and  increase  the  power  of  our  vitality  for 
the  purpose  of  securing  health  and  prolonging  life. 


RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB.  117 

ARTICLE  V. — We  believe  that  as  a  weakened  vitality 
yields  quickly  to  disease  and  death,  so  a  strengthened 
vitality  may  baffle  these  monsters  for  many  years,  and 
delay  even  the  approach  of  age. 

ARTICLE  VI. — We  believe  that  ill-health  is  due  to 
one  or  more  of  the  following  causes: 

1.  Inheritance.  2.  Carelessness.  3.  Ignorance.  That 
medicine  is  positively  injurious  and  unnecessary,  except 
in  a  crisis,  and  even  then  is  only  the  substitute  of  one 
ill  for  another;  and  that  exercises  and  regime  for  the 
generation  of  the  LIFE  PRINCIPLE  will  give  a  diseased 
body  a  NEW  BIRTH. 

ARTICLE  VII. — We  believe  that  the  adulteration  of  food 
is  increasing  every  year  at  an  alarming  rate,  and  is  the 
cause  of  diseases  of  the  liver  and  kidneys,  and  that  every 
man  and  woman  in  America  should  aid  in  an  organized 
effort  to  drive  these  adulterations  from  the  market. 

ARTICLE  VIII. — We  believe  that  a  knowledge  of  what 
is  the  best  food  for  the  stomach,  and  the  obtaining  of 
such  food  in  a  pure  state,  also  the  cultivation  of  habits 
consistent  with  the  laws  of  health,  and  the  practice  of 
exercises  for  increasing  the  power  of  the  LIFE  PRINCIPLE, 
must  and  will  result  in  absolutely  perfect  health,  and  the 
prolongation  of  human  life  far  beyond  its  present  dura- 
tion. 

ARTICLE  IX. — We  believe  that  there  are  ways  of  pre- 
venting, and  ways  of  curing,  by  natural  methods,  without 
medicine  and  without  cost,  all  the  ills  that  "  flesh  is  heir 
to,"  from  common  headaches  and  colds  to  the  great  dis- 
orders. 


118  RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 

ARTICLE  X. — We  believe  that  every  honest  physician 
should  be  willing  to  encourage  the  rapid  recovery  of  his 
patient  by  the  aid  of  Nature,  as  found  in  the  Four  Cardi- 
nal Points  of  Health. 

ARTICLE  XI. — We  believe  heartily  and  unreservedly 
that  the  Four  Cardinal  Points  of  Health — glame,  food, 
exercise  and  cheerfulness — are  founded  on  Nature's  pri- 
meval, permanent,  and  perfect  laws  of  existence. 

ARTICLE  XII. — We  believe  that  the  HOME  is  the  mother 
of  the  great  moral  arid  social  fabric  of  the  nation,  of  ad- 
vanced civilization,  individual  prosperity,  and  national 
supremacy;  that  HAPPINESS  is  the  father  of  the  HOME; 
that  HEALTH  is  the  progenitor  of  HAPPINESS;  and,  through 
Nature,  that  perfect  health  may  attend  the  life  of  every 
human  being  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

THE   RALSTON   DOCTRINES   OF    LIFE   AND   DEATH. 

We  are  in  accord  with  the  best  science  of  to-day. 
The  German  microscopists  are  men  of  accuracy;  their 
microscopes  are  the  wonders  of  civilization;  and  it  is  to 
the  shame  of  American  skill  that  this  is  so.  Prof.  Rals- 
ton and  his  colaborers  have  gone  no  farther  than  others; 
but  they  declared  years  ago,  what  scientists  now  admit, 
that  disease  is  a  sin,  and  the  longevity  of  youth  and 
health  a  positive  duty. 

No  one  desires  old  age.  Yet,  if  one  could  arrive  at 
one  hundred  and  look  only  forty,  with  wealth,  ease, 
power,  and  happiness,  would  age  then  be  undesirable? 
No.  Now  that  is  the  Ralston  doctrine;  and  science, 
scientists,  facts,  and  Nature  all  indorse  it.  We  will  lay 


RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB.  119 

down  the  principles  which  underlie  the  new  doctrine,  or 
this  exposition  of  the  first  laws  of  life. 

Nature  affords  a  process  to  youth,  which  she  intends 
should  be  reversed  when  growth  is  attained. 

This  claim  has  never  been  stated  by  any  scientist  ex- 
cept Ralston;  yet,  although  the  statement  is  new,  the 
facts  which  support  it  are  old  and  authenticated.  These 
facts  we  will  look  at  now.  A  glance  at  a  diagram  will 
show  the  large  formation  of  bone  in  the  vital  parts  of 
the  body,  and  near  the  heart.  At  birth  this  bone  was 
gelatine.  Life  begins  in  gelatine  and  ends  in  bones.  Phy- 
sicians will  tell  you  that  old  age  is  but  the  osseous  ten- 
dency of  heart,  brain,  and  arteries;  that  ninety-seven  per 
cent  of  all  people  past  middle  life  are  ossifying,  or  turn- 
ing to  bones,  in  the  heart,  in  the  brain,  and  in  the  arteries; 
that  a  steady,  gradual  change  in  this  direction  is  going 
on  from  youth  to  age;  and  that  when  any  part  of  the 
body,  excepting  the  bones,  begins  to  secrete  bony  matter, 
disease  follows:  first,  by  reducing  the  circulation;  second, 
by  impoverishing  the  blood;  third,  by  breaking  down  tis- 
sues; and  fourth,  by  exposing  the  organs  to  the  ravages 
of  germ  life.  These  facts  are  stated  by  Koch,  Grumaine, 
Browne,  Lewes,  Bichat,  Baillie,  and  a  score  of  others;  and 
are  proven  by  observation. 

It  is  necessary  that  the  osseous  tendency  should  occur  in 
youth.  This  process  makes  the  bones  and  gives  the  hard- 
ness. All  foods  and  liquids,  except  fruits  and  distilled 
water,  contain  carbonate  and  phosphate  of  lime  and 
other  calcareous  salts,  which  develop  bones,  and,  by  a 
continuous  action,  carry  the  tendency  to  every  part  of  the 


120  RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 

body.  When  the  bones  become  hardened,  the  body 
reaches  its  limit  of  growth.  If  a  young  person  should 
eat  fruits,  drink  only  distilled  water,  and  follow  the  Rals- 
ton system  of  foods,  the  bones  would  not  harden  for 
many  years,  and  the  body  would  attain  to  great  size. 

This  hardening  of  the  bones  determines  why  some  per- 
sons are  small  and  others  large.  In  one  hundred  fami- 
lies of  Ralston  followers,  the  experiment  is  being  tried  of 
giving  the  proper  foods,  fruit,  and  water  to  children,  and 
the  claim  is  proven  already;  although  further  reports 
will  be  made  at  intervals. 

Medical  works  say  "  it  is  as  natural  to  die  as  to  be 
born."  Until  within  a  few  years  all  physicians  have 
asserted  that  "  there  comes  a  time  when  the  body  wears 
out,  and  death  is  the  penalty,  visiting  all  that  live." 

Apart  from  disease  which  destroys  life,  the  wear  and 
tear  of  the  body  which  brings  on  age  are  absolutely  un- 
necessary. 

We  have  seen  that  ossification  is  necessary  to  youth,  in 
order  that  the  bones  may  be  formed  and  made  strong. 
This  action  of  the  blood  which  deposits  bony  matter  is 
kept  up  through  life.  WHY  DO  WE  NOT  REVERSE  THE  PRO- 
CESS? Old  age,  the  wear  and  tear  of  life,  the  breaking 
down  of  the  functions  of  the  body,  are  all  caused  by  this 
osseous  process,  which  is  itself  caused  by  calcareous  de- 
posits. 

What  do  these  calcareous  deposits  cause? 

1.  The  hardening  of  the  skin;  thereupon  the  skin 
wrinkles,  gets  old,  the  hair  is  killed,  and  the  blood  does 
riot  circulate  freely,  causing  an  aged  look  in  place  of  the 
freshness  of  youth.  We  say  this  can  be  prevented. 


RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB.  121 

2.  The  brain  turns  to  bony  substance  in  its  intricate 
parts;  it  loses  flexibility,  becomes  hard,  gets  "  set,"  and 
deep  thinking  is  impossible. 

3.  The  heart  is  likewise  clogged;  its  circulative  action 
is  impeded,  the  body  suffers  by  reason  of  poor  blood,  all 
the  organs  begin  to  break  down  from  lack  of  blood,  and 
sickness  or  severe  exhaustion  is  liable  at  any  moment  to 
cause  "  heart  failure."     We  say  this  can  be  prevented. 

4.  The  arteries  all  through  the  body  become  clogged 
by  the  osseous  tendency,  and  weariness  results,  causing 
the  most  serious  loss  of  energy.     We  say  this  can  be  pre- 
vented. 

5.  The  bones,  muscles,  sinews,  tendons,  ligaments,  and 
tissues  become  stiff?  and   old   age — "  rheumaticky "  old 
age — even  at  forty,  sets  in,  attended  by  multitudinous  ills. 
We  say  this  can  be  prevented. 

HOW  PREVENTED? 

Experiments,  everywhere  universal,  prove  that  our 
theories  are  correct.  Nature  and  Nature's  God  decreed 
to  man  the  power  of  reasoning  out  his  life;  to  animals  the 
misfortune  of  a  diminished  brain.  So  animals  die  from 
the  osseous  tendency.  Yet  we  can  prolong  life  and  buoy- 
ancy of  any  animal  by  giving  it  distilled  water  altogether. 
Animals  cannot,  of  their  own  volition,  reverse  the  process 
of  youth;  man  can. 

THE    RALSTON   RULE. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  ever  after,  habitually  dis- 
solve the  osseous  deposits  of  the  body. 


122  RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 

Distilled  water  of  itself  is  sufficient;  but,  as  it  cannot 
always  be  obtained,  the  use  of  the  following  fruits  will  aid 
to  a  great  extent: 

Apples  at  all  seasons,  pears,  grapes,  orange  juice  (not 
the  pulp),  cherries,  plums,  peaches,  and  berries. 

THE   NATURE   OF   FOOD. 

The  body  is  composed  of  fourteen  elements,  which  are 
as  follows: 

1.  Oxygen.  2.  Carbon.  3.  Hydrogen.  4.  Nitrogen. 
5.  Calcium.  6.  Phosphorus.  7.  Sulphur.  8.  Sodium. 
9.  Chlorine.  10.  Fluorine.  11.  Iron.  12.  Potassium. 
13.  Magnesium.  14.  Silicon. 

These  are  stated  as  elements,  but  are  required  in  com- 
binations. Thus,  water  is  a  combination  of  oxygen  and 
hydrogen,  and,  as  such  combination,  is  needed  as  food. 

Without  trying  the  patience  of  the  reader  too  much  by 
the  use  of  scientific  terms,  we  will  state  the  chemical 
names  only  of  these  combinations,  and  try  hereafter  to 
describe  all  facts  in  simple,  every-day  language. 

In  the  human  body,  there  are  seventeen  combinations 
of  the  Fourteen  Elements  of  food: 

1.  Water.  2.  Gelatin.  3.  Fat.  4.  Phosphate  of  Lime. 
5.  Albumen.  6.  Carbonate  of  Lime.  7.  Fibrin.  8.  Flu- 
oride of  Calcium.  9.  Phosphate  of  Soda.  10.  Phosphate 
of  Potash.  11.  Phosphate  of  Magnesia.  12.  Chloride  of 
Sodium  (common  salt).  13.  Sulphate  of  Soda.  14.  Car- 
bonate of  Soda.  15.  Sulphate  of  Potash.  16.  Peroxide 
of  Iron.  17.  Silica. 


RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB.  123 

Our  purpose  in  furnishing  a  list  of  the  seventeen  com- 
binations which  are  found  in  the  body  is  to  give  them  as 
they  are  required  in  food;  as  for  instance,  in  the  example 
of  oxygen  and  hydrogen,  which  the  body  receives  in  the 
combination  called  water,  although  they  are  in  other 
forms  of  food  also. 

The  nature  of  food  may  now  be  seen  by  examining  the 
above  list  of  seventeen  combinations. 

The  process  of  life  in  the  body  hae  the  following  divi- 
sions: 

1.  The  governing  portion;  consisting  of  the  brain  which 
orders  the  muscles,  and  of  the  nerves  which  carry  all 
communications  between  the  brain  and  the  muscles. 

2.  The  executive  portion;  called  the  muscular  system. 

3.  The  fuel,  which,  by  burning  (in  a  chemical  sense) 
in  the  body,  keeps  up  a  supply  of  heat,  which  is  the 
source  of  all  activity  or  motion. 

Food  must  therefore  supply  these  three  great  divisions 
of  the  processes  of  life,  and  the  nature  of  the  food  should 
be  determined  by  its  ability  to  do  this.  Every  day  we 
live  we  must  take  into  the  system  every  one  of  the  four- 
teen elements  in  their  seventeen  combinations,  as  before 
described,  or  there  will  be  some  thing  the  matter.  The 
absence  of  any  one  element,  or  its  deficiency,  will  result 
in  some  disarrangement  tending  to  sickness  and  death. 
It  is  better  at  the  present  time  to  keep  the  classification 
of  foods  in  the  three  great  divisions,  which  furnish: 

1.  Vitality;  or  brains,  nerves,  and  bones. 

2.  Strength;  or  muscle  development. 

3.  Heat;  or  fat. 


124  RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 

Of  the  fourteen  elements  needed  in  the  body,  and  which 
must  be  supplied  in  the  food  taken  in  the  system,  those 
which  supply  the  three  great  demands,  vitality,  strength, 
and  heat,  are  classified  under  general  terms  as  fol- 
lows, the  words  being  used  in  their  popular,  and  not  their 
chemical,  sense: 

1.  The  Phosphates,  in  which  phosphorus  predominates, 
supply  vitality,  or  brain,  nerves,  and  bones. 

2.  The  Nitrates,  in  which  nitrogen  predominates,  sup- 
ply the  muscles  for  strength. 

3.  The  Carbonates,  in  which  carbon  predominates,  sup- 
ply heat  and  make  fat. 

It  is  a  sad  fact  that  people  in  general  know  nothing  of 
the  nature  of  the  food  they  eat,  and  many  wonder  why 
they  are  not  well.  It  is  physically  impossible  to  live  upon 
any  one  kind  of  food  more  than  a  month  or  two;  that  is, 
if  food  contained  only  carbonates,  the  person  would  soon 
die;  or  if  the  carbonates  were  in  excess,  although  accom- 
panied by  the  nitrates,  the  person  would  have  fever, 
headache,  poor  blood,  pimples,  and  humors.  There  is 
also  disarrangement  in  the  system  when  nitrates  or  phos- 
phates predominate. 

These  three  words,  carbonates,  nitrates,  and  phosphates, 
should  be  committed  to  memory  by  all  persons  who 
intend  to  enter  upon  that  higher  life  of  health  which  is 
provided  for  Progressive  Ralstonites.  The  words  are 
popular,  and  not  the  scientific  words  that  have  the  strict 
meaning  given  them  in  deeper  science.  It  is  not  hard 
to  speak  of  carbonates  as  heat  makers;  nitrates  as  mus- 


RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB.  125 

cle  makers;  and  phosphates  as  brain  makers.  The  brain 
is  identical  in  its  life  with  the  nervous  system,  and  the 
phosphates  therefore  strengthen  the  brain  and  nerves, 
and  furnish  substance  for  the  bones,  after  having  been 
useful  in  supplying  vitality. 

Are  all  foods  to  contain  an  equal  share  of  carbonates 
nitrates,  and  phosphates?  No.  The  proportion  is  fur- 
nished by  Nature,  and  should  be  maintained  by  use  in 
taking  food. 


LAWS  OF  EATING. 

FIRST  FACT. — What  is  good  on  one  day  may  not  be  so 
good  on  another,  and  what  may  suit  one  person  is  not 
sure  to  suit  another. 

SECOND  FACT. — There  are  many  varieties  of  days  in 
the  course  of  a  year,  and  the  health  and  comfort  of  the 
body  demand  that  the  kind  of  food  eaten  should,  in  a 
reasonable  degree  at  least,  conform  to  the  day  on  which 
it  is  eaten. 

THIRD  FACT. — If  foods  suitable  for  cold  weather  are 
eaten  on  a  hot  day  in  summer,  the  blood  will  become 
feverish,  and  the  heat  of  the  atmosphere  will  be  unen- 
durable. 

FOURTH  FACT. — If  summer  foods  are  eaten  on  a  cold 
day  in  winter,  the  body  will  surely  catch  cold.  The  pop- 
ular idea  is  that  colds  are  due  to  a  draft. 

FIFTH  FACT.— We  can  prove  that  a  person  whose  food 
on  a  cold  day  is  suited  to  the  day,  will  not  readily  catch 


126  RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB. 

cold  under  any  exposure;  whereas  one  who  eats  summer 
food  in  winter  will  take  cold,  even  when  most  careful. 

SIXTH  FACT. — Nature,  in  her  wonderful  bounty,  has 
provided  a  certain  class  of  eatables,  the  sole  purpose  of 
which  is  to  furnish  WARMTH  to  the  human  body,  and  to 
make  its  blood  hot  and  active.  These  foods  we  shall  call 
heaters.  Science  calls  them  carbonaceous,  because  they 
are  forms  of  carbon,  an  element  that  burns  (in  a  chemi- 
cal sense)  in  the  body. 

SEVENTH  FACT. — If  you  eat  heaters  on  a  hot  summer 
day,  it  is  as  though  you  build  a  fire,  put  on  heavy  cloth- 
ing, and  try  to  refrain  from  being  irritable  or  nervous. 

EIGHTH  FACT. — Many  a  person  has  been  stricken  with 
fever  by  not  knowing  the  laws  of  FOOD  SELECTION,  and  par- 
taking of  winter  eatables  in  summer. 

NINTH  FACT. — Of  recent  years  running  sores,  tumors, 
ulcers,  humors  in  the  blood,  face-pimples,  and  skin  dis- 
eases have  been  found  to  be  due  to  eating  too  large  a  pro- 
portion of  heaters,  thus  enabling  bacteria  to  live  and 
increase.  The  practice  of  treating  such  disorders  by  giv- 
ing the  patient  a  proper  proportion  of  food  has  been  emi- 
nently successful.  In  fact,  no  other  rational  remedy 
exists. 

TENTH  FACT. — On  a  damp  or  chilly  day,  when  the 
hands  and  feet  are  cold  and  the  circulation  of  the  blood 
seems  poor,  an  increase  of  the  proportion  of  food  heaters 
will  so  quickly  remedy  the  trouble  that  the  cure  will  seem 
miraculous. 

ELEVENTH  FACT. — Nature  has  provided  certain  kinds 


RALSTON  HEALTH  CLUB.  127 

of  food,  whose  sole  purpose  is  to  supply  the  elements  and 
tissues  which  develop  the  general  muscular  system  of  the 
body,  and  on  which  alone  the  strength  depends.  These 
we  shall  call  muscle-makers. 

TWELFTH  FACT.— Nature  has  completed  her  work  in 
this  regard  by  supplying  certain  other  kinds  of  food, 
whose  sole  purpose  is  to  supply  the  vitality  of  the  nerves 
and  brain.  As  the  nerves  emanate  from,  and  are  a  part 
of  the  brain,  some  physiologists  call  these  eatables  brain 
foods.  We  shall  call  them  vitalizers,  which  is  much  the 
same  thing. 

All  foods,  therefore,  belong  to  one  of  three  classes: 
1.  Heaters.     2.  Muscle-makers.     3.   Vitalize™. 

[Consult  Table  showing  Analysis  of  Foods.] 

Nutrition  to  the  body  can  come  only  through  the  activ- 
ity of  the  body. 

Food  attracted  to  any  part  of  the  body  by  exercise  gives 
health  and  vigor  to  that  part. 

Food,  no  matter  how  nutritious  it  may  be  in  its  ele- 
ments, is  not  so  easily  drawn  into  the  organic  life  of  the 
system,  or  "  assimilated,"  as  physicians  say.  unless  mus- 
cular activity  is  going  on.  Much  of  the  best  food,  not 
being  assimilated,  is  lost  as  waste. 

Assimilated  food,  after  having  served  its  purpose,  be- 
comes effete;  and  such  effete  matter  should  be  thrown  off 
by  exercise  and  the  eating  of  fruit. 


PHOSPHORUS. 

FROM   DE  LACY   EVANS,  DITTMAR,  LIEBIG   AND   OTHERS. 


The  word  u  phosphorus  "  was  long  used  to  signify  sub- 
stances which  shone  in  the  dark  without  burning.  In 
1678  the  German  alchemist,  Brand,  of  Hamburg,  hoping 
to  obtain  an  essence  for  the  "  ennobling "  of  silver  into 
gold,  subjected  urine  solids  to  dry  distillation  and  pro- 
duced phosphorus.  In  1771  Scheele  obtained  it  from 
bones  by  a  process  which  is  in  general  use  at  the  present 
day. 

Phosphorus  exists  in  the  most  highly  developed  organs 
or  structures  of  men  and  animals.  The  brain  and  other 
nerve  centers  contain  a  substance  termed  protagon,  of 
which  phosphorus  forms  an  essential  constituent. 

The  brain  contains  cells,  and  also  fibers  which  are  joined 
to,  and  issue  from,  the  cells,  which,  with  the  spinal  mar- 
row and  nerves — the  latter  reaching  every  portion  of  the 
body — form  a  perfect  telegraphic  apparatus,  controlling 
every  thought  and  action. 

The  first  cause  of  thought  is  not  organic,  but  spiritual; 
the  business  of  thinking  is  organic.  During  thought, 
worry,  remorse,  or  hard  study,  phosphates  are  largely  in- 
creased in  the  excretas.  As  the  brain  is  the  center  of 
thought,  it  is  clear  that  this  waste  of  phosphates  is  due 


PHOSPHORUS.  129 

to  oxidation  or  loss  of  phosphorus  from  the  brain,  result- 
ing from  mental  exertion. 

Phosphorus,  even  in  sleep,  gradually  oxidizes  in  the 
cerebro-spinal  axis;  electricity  is  developed,  and  when 
it  has  reached  a  certain  tension,  is  discharged  along  the 
nerves  which  supply  the  heart,  causing  its  pulsation  and 
the  resulting  circulation  of  the  blood. 

It  is  a  chemical  fact  that  on  the  oxidation  or  burning 
up  of  phosphorus  in  the  atmosphere  an  electric  charge  is 
given  off;  also,  that  on  passing  a  current  of  electricity 
along  the  course  of  one  or  more  nerves  of  an  animal 
body  muscular  contractions  result.  Thought,  the  mind 
itself,  many  nervous  actions  with  which  the  mind  has  no 
connection,  volition  and  common  sensation,  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  presence  of  phosphorus  in  the  cerebro- 
spinal  axis. 

Every  thought,  every  sensation,  is  accompanied  by  a 
change  in  the  composition  of  the  substance  of  the  brain. 
A  man  wills  his  hand  to  reach  a  certain  object.  Phos- 
phorus is  oxidized  in  the  brain  cells,  which  either  com- 
municate or  are  in  contact  with  nerve  fibers,  and  the 
electric  current  caused  by  oxidation  of  phosphorus  in  the 
brain  passes  down  these  fibers  (on  exactly  the  same  prin- 
ciple as  the  telegraph  wire)  to  the  arm  or  hand;  contrac- 
tions of  muscles  result — the  action  willed  is  completed. 

According  to  careful  estimates  three  hours  of  hard 
study  wear  out  the  body  more  than  a  whole  day  of  hard 
physical  exertion.  "  Without  phosphorus,  no  thought," 
is  a  German  saying;  and  the  consumption  of  that  essen- 
tial ingredient  of  the  brain  increases  in  proportion  to  the 


130  PHOSPHORUS. 

amount  of  labor  which  this  organ  is  required  to  perform. 
The  wear  and  tear  of  the  brain  are  easily  measured  by 
careful  examination  of  the  salts  of  the  liquid  excretions. 

The  importance  of  the  brain  is  verified  by  the  fact  that 
although  it  only  weighs  one-fortieth  of  the  weight  of  the 
body  yet  it  requires  one-fifth  of  the  blood.  It  is  generally 
believed  that  the  supply  of  phosphorus  is  derived  from 
earthy  or  alkaline  phosphates  taken  into  the  system  in 
articles  of  diet,  and  that  some  action  must  exist  with 
power  to  deoxidize  phosphates  and  extract  free  phos- 
phorus, but,  whatever  the  source  may  be,  it  must  first 
exist  in  the  blood  and  be  carried  by  it  to  the  brain,  which 
we  may  therefore  compare  to  a  gland,  one  purpose  of 
which  is  the  secretion  or  absorption  of  phosphorus  from 
the  blood  for  the  purpose  of  taking  part  in  some  of  the 
most  important  functions  and  manifestations  of  vital  phe- 
nomena. Direct  experiment  and  many  records  of  the 
chemical  pathology  of  the  brain  show,  that  although  phos- 
phates by  gradual  deposition  often  increase  in  the  brain^ 
the  quantity  of  oxidizable  phosphorus  decreases  in  "  old 
age." 

Phosphorus  may  not  be  a  vital  principle,  but  it  plays 
an  important  part  in  organic  life.  As  the  brain  derives 
its  supply  of  phosphorus  from  the  blood,  which  circulates 
in  vessels  which  gradually  indurate,  ossify,  and  become 
lessened  in  caliber  as  age  advances,  so  must  the  brain 
and  nerves  gradually  lose  their  powers  of  selection  and 
imbibition  and  be  deprived  of  their  nourishment.  Thus 
the  quantity  of  oxidiza^e  phosphorus  in  the  brain  de- 
creases in  "old  age." 


PHOSPHORUS.  131 

In  the  present  age  of  rapidity  and  despatch  phosphorus 
is  often  a  deficient  constituent  of  the  brain  and  nerves. 
It  is  often  wasted  in  the  turmoil  of  business,  in  anxious 
moments  pending  loss  or  success,  in  grief  and  sadness,  and 
in  the  mental  applications  of  the  scholar;  also,  in  the 
excessive  indulgence  of  the  inebriate,  as  alcohol  in  excess 
dissolves  and  removes  phosphorus  from  the  brain,  hence 
the  tremor  and  other  symptoms  dependent  upon  a  de- 
ficiency of  nerve  power. 

To  demonstrate  the  action  of  phosphorus  upon  the  sys- 
tem, after  its  absorption  into  the  blood,  we  may  divide  it 
into  two  portions.  One  part  is  carried  by  the  circulation 
to  the  brain,  which  assimilates  and  fixes  it  in  its  own  sub- 
stance. The  other  part  is  carried  by  the  general  circula- 
tion to  every  structure  and  organ  of  the  body.  During 
its  passage  it  fixes  and  combines  with  oxygen  existing  in 
the  blood,  and  becomes  hypophosphorus,  afterward  phos- 
phoric acid.  Phosphoric  acid  combines  with  the  alkaline 
and  earthy  bases  existing  in  the  blood,  forming  neutral 
salts.  As  the  amount  of  phosphoric  acid  increases,  part 
of  the  insoluble  earthy  compounds  become  superphos- 
phates, which  are  soluble  and  circulate  again  in  the  blood, 
and  a  portion  is  removed  from  the  system  in  the  liquid 
excretions.  This  prevents  the  accumulation  of  earthy 
compounds,  the  cause  of  old  age,  and  even  removes  those 
already  deposited,  thereby  prolonging  life  for  a  lengthened 
period. 

Hypophosphites  have  a  similar  action;  they  fix  oxygen 
from  blood  and  become  phosphates,  thus  preventing 
undue  waste  of  the  system.  This  is  the  reason — and  the 


132  PHOSPHORUS. 

only  one — that  the  hypophosphites  act  so  beneficially  in 
consumption.  The  alkaline  hypophosphites  only  are  of 
service  for  the  purpose  now  under  consideration. 

Therefore,  in  the  agents  best  adapted  to  prolong  life  for 
a  lengthened  period,  we  notice  chiefly  distilled  water 
used  daily  as  a  drink;  unoxidized  phosphorus,  in  syrup, 
glycerine,  etc.,  in  doses  of  one  or  two  dracbms,  according 
to  the  strength  of  the  solution;  the  alkaline  hypophos- 
phites, and  the  dilute  phosphoric  acid  in  doses  of  from 
ten  to  twenty  drops  in  a  glass  of  water.  The  latter  has 
all  the  properties  of  a  decided  acid,  but,  for  a  mineral 
acid,  the  exceptional  qualities  of  an  agreeably  sour  taste 
and  of  non-poisonousness.  These  preparations  may  be 
taken  two  or  three  times  daily  (according  to  the  degree 
of  ossification)  as  an  article  of  diet  and  not  as  a  med- 
icine. 


TREATMENT  OF  THE   SKIN. 


No  article  on  longevity  is  complete  without  reference  to 
the  proper  condition  and  treatment  of  the  skin.  The 
importance  of  this  organ  is  not  generally  understood. 
The  adult  man  has  an  average  of  2,500  square  inches  of 
skin,  containing  about  5,000,000  pores,  which  in  health 
are  in  a  state  of  activity.  It  is  claimed  that  nourishment 
may  be  ingested  through  these  pores  by  baths  of  milk  or 
other  fluids.  It  is  not,  however,  from  this  fact  that  the 
skin  derives  its  importance.  It  is  essentially  an  organ 
for  the  constant  disposal  of  waste  products  of  the  body. 
Water  and  many  poisonous  substances,  such  as  uric  and 
biliary  acids,  malarial  poisons  and  general  epidermic  de- 
bris, are  expelled  through  the  pores  of  the  skin. 

Perspiration  is  one  of  the  fluids  in  which  the  body 
washes  out  its  waste  materials.  In  temperate  weather 
an  adult  perspires  about  a  quart  per  day.  It  is  a  regu- 
lator of  bodily  heat,  as  by  evaporation  it  aids  in  main- 
taining a  uniform  temperature.  When  evaporation  ceases, 
internal  heat  is  raised  above  the  normal,  and  fever  occurs. 

Many  experimenters  have  carefully  considered  skin 
transpiration.  The  most  notable,  Sanctorious,  for  thirty 
years  daily  weighed  his  food  and  drink,  and  the  natural 
excretions.  He  determined  that  about  one-half  of  the 
ingesta  was  eliminated  by  the  skin. 

(133) 


134  TREATMENT  OF  THE  SKIN. 

The  skin  is  also  claimed  to  be  a  subsidiary  respiratory 
organ,  inhaling  oxygen  and  exhaling  carbonic  acid  gas. 
When  the  pores  are  clogged  by  waste  products  the  normal 
action  is  impeded,  and  other  organs,  especially  the  kid- 
neys, are  forced  to  double  work.  "A  child  was  once 
gilded  to  represent  an  angel  at  a  papal  festival  at  Rome, 
and  died  in  four  hours  from  suppression  of  this  excreting 
and  heat-evaporating  function." 

The  human  system  bears  changes  in  temperature  of  air 
better  than  changes  in  temperature  of  water.  Seventy- 
five  degrees  of  heat  in  air  is  summer  heat,  but  a  bath  at 
the  same  temperature  seems  cold.  Water  at  ninety-nine 
degrees  excites  the  system;  being  a  better  conductor  than 
air  it  brings  more  heat  to  the  body  and  suppresses  per- 
spiration, while  air  increases  it.  A  bath  at  ninety  de- 
grees can  be  borne  longer  than  at  any  other  temperature. 
Such  a  bath  affects  only  the  surface.  There  is  no  reaction 
and  the  animal  temperature  is  unchanged.  Cold  baths 
should  be  of  short  duration  and  used  only  by  the  strong 
and  active  in  whom  the  powers  of  reaction  are  unim- 
paired. They  are  always  dangerous  when  the  system  is 
in  a  state  of  exhaustion.  The  risk  incident  to  cold  baths 
is  congestion  of  the  internal  organs,  shown  by  the  lips 
becoming  blue.  Warm  baths  are  restful  and  relaxing. 

Father  Sebastian  Kneipp,  a  parish  priest  of  Bavaria, 
has  become  famous  through  the  success  of  his  water-cure 
establishments.  The  main  feature  of  his  system  consists 
of  a  plunge  into  cold  water,  quick  dressing  without  drying 
the  body,  followed  by  immediate  and  rapid  exercise;  the 
principle  involved  being  reaction  inducing  perspiration. 


TREATMENT  OF  THE  SKIN.  135 

Weismann,  De  Lacy  Evans,  and  others,  furnish  con- 
siderable information  concerning  the  daily  habits  of  cen- 
tenarians^  which  data,  however,  do  not  mention  treatment 
of  the  skin.  Hence  it  is  necessary  to  turn  to  local  in- 
stances. Reference  is  here  made  to  three  well-known 
cases: 

The  first,  recently  deceased,  age  95,  for  the  last  forty 
years  of  his  life  used  only  flesh  brushes  vigorously  applied. 

The  second,  Old  Gabriel,  who  died  March  16,  1890,  at 
an  authenticated  age  exceeding  120  years,  induced  per- 
spiration by  heated  smoke  and  vapor,  scraping  the  body 
usually  with  sticks. 

The  third,  an  active  business  man  in  vigorous  health 
and  in  full  possession  of  all  his  faculties  now  in  his  one 
hundredth  year,  has  for  the  past  sixty  years  followed  this 
unvarying  habit:  Before  retiring  he  has  used  a  towel 
dipped  in  water  at  the  temperature  of  the  room,  drying 
by  vigorous  rubbing. 

Here  are  three  cases  which  differ  in  detail,  but  the  re- 
sult accomplished  is  the  same. 

A  healthy  condition  of  the  skin  is  essential  to  extreme 
age,  and  when  one  reaches  such  age  we  may  presume  that 
no  neglect  in  this  particular  has  occurred.  The  following 
directions  are  adapted  to  nearly  all  conditions  of  life,  and 
if  persisted  in,  will  be  found  sufficient  to  keep  the  skin  in 
perfect  condition: 

Before  retiring  rub  the  body  vigorously  with  flesh  brush, 
hair  glove,  or  rough  towel,  until  the  blood  is  brought  to  the 
surface.  Follow  this  immediately  by  a  sponge  bath  with 
water  at  the  temperature  of  the  room. 


WHAT  TO  DRINK. 


Thirst  is  largely  influenced  by  diet.  With  certain  foods 
the  inclination  is  to  drink  a  great  deal;  especially  is  this 
the  case  with  foods  of  a  starchy  or  saline  character.  The 
heating  effects  of  alcohol  (even  in  light  wines)  induce 
thirst.  An  effect  exactly  contrary  occurs  where  the  diet 
consists  largely  of  fresh  fruits;  this  is  mainly  on  account 
of  the  water  contained  therein,  and  the  absence  of  any 
irritating  effects  incident  to  cereal  foods,  or  the  heating 
effects  where  the  carbonaceous  element  predominates. 
Temperature,  also,  from  its  influence  on  perspiration, 
affects  thirst. 

The  average  adult  weighs  150  pounds;  of  this  weight  at 
least  130  pounds  are  water.  Blood  contains  95,  muscle 
77,  and  bone  a  large  per  cent  of  water. 

Daily  secretions  and  excretions  require  a  quantity  of 
fluid.  The  tissues  are  bathed  in  fluids  which  bring  nutri- 
ment and  dispose  of  waste.  Ordinarily,  one  drinks  too 
little  water,  because  of  habit  and  the  mistaken  impression 
that  it  is  undesirable  to  dilute  too  freely  the  gastric  juice. 
It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  many  cases  the  beneficial 
effects  ascribed  to  watering-places  are  due,  not  to  any  spe- 
cial quality  in  the  water,  but  to  the  quantity  used.  Water 

(136) 


WHAT  TO  DRINK.  137 

not  only  gives  fluidity  to  the  blood,  but  it  is  essential  to 
digestion  and  the  secretions  involved  in  the  digestive  act. 

Water  taken  into  the  stomach  is  quickly  absorbed  into 
the  current  of  the  blood  and  circulated  through  the  whole 
body.  It  is  the  only  necessary  drink,  and  its  purity  is  of 
vital  importance.  Milk  is  water  and  food.  Wine  is  water, 
with  the  addition  of  about  15  per  cent  of  alcohol  and  sugar 
acids.  Tea  and  coffee  are  watered  infusions  of  leaves  and 
berries,  containing  stimulants. 

Tea  has  a  retarding  effect  on  salivary  digestion,  as  have 
coffee  and  cocoa  to  a  slight  degree.  This  action  of  tea  is 
due  to  tannin,  which  is  one  of  the  most  soluble  sub- 
stances known,  of  which  tea  infused  for  two  minutes  con- 
tains nearly  the  same  amount  as  if  infused  for  twenty 
minutes.  The  only  way  to  avoid  the  effect  of  tea  on  sali- 
vary digestion  is  to  eat  first,  allowing;  the  saliva  to  perform 
its  function,  and  then  to  drink.  It  is  claimed,  however,  that 
a  small  addition  of  carbonate  of  soda  will  remove  this  effect. 

The  effects  of  tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa  on  peptic  digestion 
are  alike  for  infusions  of  equal  strength.  Cocoa  is  gener- 
ally used  with  the  strength  of  about  two  per  cent;  tea 
four  or  five  per  cent;  coffee  five  to  seven  per  cent.  The 
latter  has  a  powerful  retarding  effect  on  gastric  digestion. 
They  all  contain  a  volatile  oil,  upon  which  their  aroma 
depends;  a  nitrogenous  compound,  as  theine,  caffeine,  and 
theobromine;  and  also  an  astringent  acid,  of  which  the 
tannic  acid  of  tea  is  a  good  example.  The  experiments 
of  Lehmann,  in  1854,  showed  that  when  the  infusion  of 
three-fourths  of  an  ounce  of  coffee  was  taken  daily  for  four- 
teen days,  "the  amount  of  urea  and  phosphoric  acid  ex- 


138  WHAT  TO  DRINK. 

creted  by  the  kidneys  was  less  by  one-third  than  when 
the  same  food  was  taken  without  the  coffee."  His  opin- 
ion was  that  it  retarded  the  waste  of  tissues.  Many  au- 
thorities, however,  contend  that  the  constant  use  of  coffee 
is  decidedly  injurious  to  the  general  health,  and  especially 
to  the  eyesight.  In  some  of  these  beverages  the  amount 
of  astringent  matter  is  too  great  for  assimilation.  Those 
who  drink  strong  decoctions  of  tea  in  large  quantities  suf- 
fer from  a  peculiar  dyspepsia,  due  to  the  tannin  acting  on 
the  coats  of  the  stomach.  The  Russian  system  of  taking 
lemon  juice  in  tea  is  good,  because  of  the  presence  of  citric 
acid,  which  prevents  this  astringent  action  of  the  tannin. 

Undoubtedly  a  scientific  summing  up  of  the  pros  and 
cons  of  tea,  coffee,  and  cocoa  would  result,  first,  in  ascrib- 
ing their  general  use  to  stimulating  qualities;  and  sec- 
ond, in  condemning  their  use  under  any  and  all  conditions 
as  unnecessary,  and,  when  freely  used,  injurious.  The 
pernicious  habit  of  drinking  at  meals  is  largely  responsi- 
ble for  the  general  use  of  these  stimulants.  Any  one  who 
satisfies  natural  thirst  by  a  glass  or  two  of  distilled  water 
between  meals  will  find  no  inclination  to  drink  at  meals. 

Sir  William  Roberts  states  that  distilled  spirits — brandy, 
whisky,  and  gin — have  but  a  trifling  retarding  effect  on 
the  digestive  processes  when  used  dietetically.  Their  ob- 
structive effects  become  apparent  only  when  used  intem- 
perately.  In  moderate  dietetic  proportions  distilled  spirits 
stimulate  the  glands  which  secrete  the  digestive  juices, 
and  their  effects  on  the  muscular  activity  of  the  stomach 
are  generally  regarded  as  distinctly  promotive  of  diges- 
tion. 


WHAT  TO  DRINK.  139 

Wines  exhibit  a  different  action,  as,  on  account  of  their 
acidity,  they  check  the  action  of  saliva  on  starch  foods. 
The  addition  of  an  alkali  will  neutralize  this  effect;  there- 
fore, by  mixing  table  wines  with  soda,  seltzer,  or  any  other 
effervescent  waters,  all  of  which  contain  alkaline  carbon- 
ates, salivary  action  would  not  be  impeded.  Wines  also 
check  the  speed  of  peptic  digestion;  hence  the  quantity 
used  should  be  adjusted  to  bring  out  their  stimulating 
action  without  provoking  the  retarding  effect  which  marks 
their  more  liberal  use.  Effervescing  wines  are  more  favor- 
able to  peptic  digestion  than  still  wines.  This  is  due  to  the 
mechanical  effects  of  effervescence  and  the  liberation  of 
gas  causing  digestive  action. 

Chambers  states  that  the  effect  on  a  healthy  man  of 
taking  with  a  meal  such  a  quantity  of  fermented  liquors 
as  puts  him  at  ease  with  himself  and  the  world  around, 
without  untoward  exhilaration,  is  to  arrest  the  wear  of  the 
nervous  system,  especially  that  part  employed  in  emotion 
and  sensation.  Just  as  often,  then,  as  the  zest  for  food  is 
raised  to  its  normal  standard  by  a  little  wine  with  a  meal, 
the  moderate  consumer  is  as  much  really  better  as  he  feels 
the  better  for  it;  but  where  the  food  is  as  keenly  enjoyed 
without  it,  a  stimulant  is  useless.  In  the  autumn  of  life 
the  use  of  fermented  liquors  is  more  advantageous,  and 
the  injuries  it  can  inflict  less  injurious  to  the  body  than 
in  youth.  The  effect  of  alcohol  with  the  aged  is  to  check 
the  activity  of  destructive  assimilation,  and  to  arrest  that 
rapid  flux  of  the  substance  of  the  frame  which  in  healthy 
youth  is  not  excessive,  but  which  in  old  age  exhausts  the 
vital  force.  Loss  of  appetite  is  a  frequent  and  serious 


140  WHAT  TO  DRINK. 

symptom  of  old  age.  It  usually  arises  from  deficient 
formation  of  gastric  juice,  which,  with  other  secretions, 
diminishes  with  years. 

That  wines  and  malt  liquors,  used  dietetically,  have  an 
action  upon  the  stomach  which  is  pleasant  and  grateful, 
is  generally  known  by  people  accustomed  to  their  use. 
They  stimulate  the  gastric  flow,  and  increase  the  muscu- 
lar activity  of  the  stomach,  which  is  the  cause  of  the  sense 
of  well-being  accompanying  their  use.  Although  the  ac- 
tion of  the  liberated  carbonic  acid  gas  of  effervescing  wines 
is  helpful  with  digesting  food,  it  will  be  found  that  the 
acetic  acid  of  flat  malt  liquor  is  distinctly  injurious  to 
weak  stomachs. 

Until  well  into  middle  age  most  persons  will  find  pure 
water  to  be  the  only  perfect  beverage.  Science  has  shown 
this  to  be  a  truism.  But  in  advanced  years,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  wane  of  life,  the  intelligent  use  of  wines  will 
usually  be  found  beneficial. 


WHAT  TO  EAT. 


Ordinary  diet  is  largely  a  matter  of  habit,  influenced  to 
some  extent  by  temperament.  That  which  is  palatable  is 
generally  chosen  without  regard  to  the  needs  of  the  system 
or  to  chemical  constituents.  The  quantity  ingested  usu- 
ally far  exceeds  actual  requirements,  because  food  is  in- 
dulged in  largely  from  a  pleasurable  standpoint,  and 
long-continued  abuse  of  the  stomach  has  partly  destroyed 
the  natural  sensation  which  should  warn  one  of  over-eat- 
ing. The  object  of  food  with  adults  is  the  nutrition  of  the 
body,  and  the  most  careful  study  should  be  given  to  selec- 
tion and  quantity.  However  important  the  selection  of 
food  may  be  in  the  earlier  years,  it  rarely  becomes  of  per- 
sonal interest  until  the  approach  of  middle  age. 

The  individual  who  scientifically  selects  his  food  is 
deemed  a  crank,  and  yet  the  question  is  perhaps  the  most 
important  in  the  human  economy,  and,  as  such,  deserves 
the  consideration  of  all  who  desire  perfect  health.  It  is 
now  freely  admitted  by  the  best  authorities  that  nearly 
all  diseases  result  from  overeating,  and  through  ignorance 
of  the  quantity  and  quality  of  food  necessary  to  sustain 
life.  The  average  authority  places  the  amount  required 
at  seven  and  a  half  pounds  per  diem,  comprising  from 
twenty  to  twenty-four  ounces  solids,  the  balance  liquids. 

(141) 


142  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

That  such  a  quantity  may  far  exceed  the  needs  of  the  sys- 
tem is  shown  in  the  case  of  the  centenarian,  Cornaro,  who 
retained  vigorous  health  after  the  age  of  forty  by  the  daily 
use  of  twelve  ounces  of  solid  and  thirteen  ounces  of  liquid 
food.  This  result  was  due  to  patient  and  careful  personal 
experiments,  unaided  by  the  scientific  knowledge  now 
obtainable  by  students  of  hygiene.  There  is  no  natural 
law  governing  quantity,  for  the  human  system  is  influ- 
enced by  a  variety  of  conditions. 

The  three  main  divisions  of  food  are: 

The  CARBONACEOUS,  which  supplies  the  bodily  heat; 

The  NITROGENOUS,  which  builds  the  tissues  of  the  body; 

And  the  PHOSPHATIC,  which  forms  the  blood-salts  and 
furnishes  the  food  required  by  the  brain. 

Although  the  daily  amount  varies  greatly,  the  propor- 
tions of  one  phosphatic,  four  nitrogenous,  and  eighteen  car- 
bonaceous, should  be  maintained  in  a  temperate  climate. 
With  a  lower  temperature  increase  of  carbonates  is  re- 
quired, while  a  corresponding  decrease  is  essential  in 
higher  temperatures. 

The  CARBONACEOUS  foods  (starch,  sugar,  fats,  etc.)  sup- 
ply heat  and  the  vital  power.  Starch  is  found  in  all 
cereals — wheat,  barley,  corn,  etc.;  also  in  the  pulse  fam- 
ily— peas,  beans,  etc. — and  in  rice,  buckwheat,  tapioca, 
arrowroot,  potatoes,  carrots,  parsnips,  and,  to  a  less  extent, 
in  turnips.  Starch  is  also  found  in  unripe  fruit,  which 
accounts  for  its  indigestibility.  It  is  changed  into  sugar 
by  the  process  of  ripening. 

Disintegration  and  solution  constitute  the  digestive  act. 
In  the  digestion  of  starch  the  saliva  first  acts  upon  it  in 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  143 

the  mouth,  changing  some  of  the  starch  into  sugar.  This 
sugar  passes  through  the  wall  of  the  stomach  into  the  por- 
tal vein,  which  conveys  it  to  the  liver,  where  it  undergoes 
a  chemical  change  and  is  stored  for  future  use  as  the  sys- 
tem requires  it.  The  undissolved  starch  remaining  in  the 
stomach  is  acted  upon  by  the  acid  gastric  juice,  and,  pass- 
ing from  the  stomach  to  the  duodenum,  is  again  acted  upon 
by  the  bile  and  pancreatic  juices;  this  latter  action,  form- 
ing the  most  important  part  of  starch  digestion,  involves 
an  excessive  strain  upon  the  system  which  may  be  avoided 
by  the  substitution  of  other  carbonaceous  foods. 

Sugar  may  be  divided  into  crystalline  or  cane  sugar 
and  glucose  or  grape  sugar.  The  former  comes  from  sugar 
cane,  beet  root,  and  the  maple  tree.  The  latter  is  found 
mainly  in  fruits.  Although  cane  sugar  requires  no  diges- 
tion to  fit  it  for  absorption,  it  certainly  undergoes  conver- 
sion wholly  or  in  part  into  grape  sugar  or  glucose  before 
leaving  the  alimentary  canal.  This  grape  sugar  is  the 
natural  body  fuel. 

Fat  is  not  affected  by  salivary  or  gastric  juices,  but  is 
acted  upon  by  the  bile  and  pancreatic  juices,  which  effect 
a  change  causing  emulsion  or  a  separation  into  particles, 
which  pass  into  the  lymphatics.  It  is  certain  that  fat  is 
utilized  to  some  extent  in  the  formation  of  tissue,  and  that 
which  is  not  utilized  for  this  purpose  is  burned  for  body 
fuel.  Fat  is  not  bilious,  and  is  most  digestible  in  the  form 
of  cod  liver  oil.  A  certain  amount  of  fat  is  essential  to 
adults,  especially  nervous  people.  There  is  no  proof  that 
fat  eaten  is  deposited  in  the  body  as  fat,  but  there  is  abun- 
dant proof  that  the  fat  of  the  body  is  the  surplus  of  starch 


144  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

and  sugar  which  has  been  stored  beyond  the  bodily  needs. 
"  Ebstein  has  successfully  advocated  the  substitution  of 
fat  for  starch  and  sugar  in  the  treatment  of  obesity." 

The  NITROGENOUS-ALBUMINOID  food  element  repairs  tis- 
sues and  supports  muscular  activity. 

The  cereals  contain  from  five  to  ten  per  cent  of  nitrogen. 
Vegetables  and  fruits  contain  a  small  per  cent;  cheese  a 
large  per  cent;  while  all  meats,  poultry,  fish,  and  eggs  are 
rich  in  nitrogen.  This  latter  class  of  foods  is  stimulating 
in  character,  and  therefore  suited  to  those  inclined  to 
physical  activity,  as  a  liberal  supply  of  nitrogenized  mat- 
ter is  necessary  to  build  up  and  maintain  muscles  in  con- 
dition for  hard  work.  With  decreased  muscular  effort 
incident  to  indolent  or  sedentary  conditions,  the  nitrogen- 
ous proportion  should  be  reduced. 

"  The  more  nitrogenous  substance  a  food  contains,  the 
less  is  the  amount  required  to  nourish  the  body:  and  in- 
versely, the  less  the  proportion  of  this  substance,  the 
greater  is  the  amount  required  to  sustain  life.  If  we  take 
cheese  and  rice  as  an  example,  the  former  contains  far 
more  nitrogen,  and  also  far  more  earthy  salts,  than  the  lat- 
ter. Hence  a  small  quantity  of  cheese  will  sustain  life, 
while  in  order  to  live  on  rice  a  large  quantity  is  re- 
quired." 

Albumen  contains  sixteen  per  cent  of  nitrogen.  De 
Lucy  Evans  states  that  the  development,  growth,  and  nu- 
trition of  human  life  depend  on  albumen,  and  that  an 
excess  of  earthy  salts  will  be  found  in  nitrogenous  (direct 
nourishment)  substances,  and  that,  as  a  rule,  the  less  nour- 
ishment the  less  amount  of  earthy  salts  in  the  food.  "Most 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  145 

of  the  maladies  which  fasten  on  the  body  as  age  approaches 
are  due  to  an  excess  of  albuminoid  waste  in  the  blood." 

Liebig  says:  "Only  those  substances  which  contain 
albumen,  or  a  substance  capable  of  being  converted  into 
albumen,  are  in  a  strict  sense  nutritious  articles  of  food." 
Vegetable  albumen — that  is,  its  purest  form— exists  in 
fruit.  By  experiments  we  find  a  comparatively  small 
quantity  of  nitrogen  necessary  to  sustain  life  in  good  bod- 
ily health.  In  fact,  fruits  taken  as  a  class  contain  suffi- 
cient nitrogen  to  nourish  life.  All  fruits  contain  carbon, 
hydrogen,  and  oxygen,  and  most  of  them  small  quantities 
of  nitrogen.  Nitrogen  is  also  supplied  to  the  system  by 
the  lungs. 

An  excess  of  nitrogen  in  foods  entails  much  work  for 
the  liver,  which  in  health  may  stand  it,  but  which  will 
eventually  cause  disease. 

"  Of  all  elements  of  the  animal  body,  nitrogen  has  the 
feeblest  attraction  for  oxygen:  and  what  is  still  more  re- 
markable, it  deprives  all  combustible  elements  with  which 
it  combines,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  of  the  power  of 
combining  with  oxygen  —  that  is,  of  undergoing  com- 
bustion. The  muscular  framework  of  the  body  consists 
largely  of  this  element,  and  thus  the  tissues  are  prevented 
from  combustion — *  they  rust,  but  do  not  burn.'  " 

The  PHOSPHATIC  element  supports  the  brain  and  nerve 
tissues.  Phosphates  abound  in  all  fish  and  fruits,  espe- 
cially figs.  They  exist  to  some  extent  in  nearly  all  foods, 
and  are  found  in  all  the  structural  elements  of  the  body. 

Phosphate  of  lime  is  requisite  for  the  bones  of  the  body, 
and  is  furnished  by  the  cereals  and  milk.  "  Casein,  al- 
10 


146  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

though  a  nitrogenous  principle,  is  conspicuous  for  the 
tenacity  with  which  it  holds  a  large  quantity  of  phosphate 
of  lime  incorporated  in  it." 

In  considering  the  influence  of  food  on  longevity,  the 
following  order  of  excellence  should  be  maintained:  Fruit, 
fish,  eggs,  fowl  (young),  animal  flesh  (young  and  growing 
larnb  and  veal),  other  animal  flesh,  vegetables,  and  lastly 
cereals. 

Fruit  is  the  ideal  food.  It  has  a  wide  range,  and  is 
freely  produced  in  all  countries,  while  an  increasing  de- 
mand is  giving  a  wonderful  impetus  to  its  culture.  The 
production  per  acre  far  exceeds  that  of  any  other  food 
product.  Under  the  influence  of  intelligent  cultivation  a 
single  tree  of  certain  varieties  will  produce  sufficient  nutri- 
tious food  to  sustain  life  in  an  adult  for  months.  The  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  banana  as  compared  to  wheat  is  as  133 
to  1,  and  as  against  potatoes  44  to  1.  A  crop  of  nearly 
fifteen  hundred  oranges  per  tree  has  been  marketed  from 
the  older  groves  of  California.  The  apple,  also,  is  enor- 
mously productive.  Hence,  from  an  economical  stand- 
point, fruit  should  be  the  food  of  the  world. 

Chemically,  the  advantage  over  other  foods  is  still 
greater,  as  fruit  contains  the  least  amount  of  earthy  mat- 
ter, and  most  fruits  contain  a  large  per  cent  of  distilled 
water  holding  in  solution  nourishment  in  the  form  of  veg- 
etable albumen.  Therefore,  one  who  eats  freely  of  apples 
or  oranges  will  seldom  feel  thirst,  even  though  addicted  to 
stimulants,  but  will  gain  physically  and  mentally  through 
the  use  of  a  pure,  nourishing  food  and  drink. 

Phosphates  and  alkalies  are  found  in  most  fruits.    The 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  147 

latter  are  left  in  solution  in  the  blood,  increasing  the  solu- 
bility of  albumen  and  fibrin,  and  preventing,  in  a  meas- 
ure, accumulations  around  the  small  blood  cells.  The 
acids — citric,  tartaric,  malic,  etc. — increase  the  solubil- 
ity of  the  blood,  causing  it  to  flow  more  readily.  They 
also  lower  the  temperature  of  the  body,  thereby  lessening 
the  waste  incident  to  combustion  or  oxidation.  Some 
fruits  contain  tannic  acid,  which,  De  Lacy  Evans  believes, 
benefits  the  system  by  hardening  the  gelatinous  structures, 
rendering  them  more  leather-like,  and  hence  less  liable  to 
decay. 

While  the  wisdom  of  a  sudden  change  from  long  exist- 
ing habit  to  a  fruit  diet  may  well  be  questioned,  it  is 
nevertheless  true  that  fruits  contain  every  chemical  con- 
stituent necessary  to  life.  Many  people  believe  that 
fruits  do  not  agree  with  them.  In  such  cases,  as  a  rule, 
the  trouble  may  be  traced  to  abuse  of  the  stomach  result- 
ing in  its  weakened  condition,  or  to  a  lack  of  intelligent 
judgment  in  selection,  time  of  eating,  and  amount.  Who- 
ever will  experiment  patiently,  using  the  same  thought 
and  skill  required  to  succeed  in  other  pursuits,  will  soon 
discover  that  a  gradual  change  from  starch  food  to  fruit 
will  result  in  the  return  of  a  natural  appetite  which  will 
give  notice  of  satiety.  Persistence  in  a  fruit  diet  will 
soon  result  in  a  clearer  vision  and  an  improved  com- 
plexion, increased  activity,  and  an  inclination  for  physical 
exercise  or  mental  labor.  Less  time  will  be  required  for 
sleep.  Fatigue  or  thirst  will  hardly  be  experienced,  and 
quick  reaction  will  follow  hours  of  toil. 


148  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

The  most  important  food  fruits  are  the  banana,  orange, 
apple,  fig,  date,  and  prune. 

THE    BANANA. 

This  plant  is  now  extensively  cultivated  in  all  tropical 
and  subtropical  climates.  Improved  means  of  communi- 
cation have  resulted  in  placing  an  abundance  of  this  val- 
uable food  at  all  seasons  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world. 
During  the  past  twenty-five  years  the  consumption  in 
many  cities  has  increased  a  hundred-fold.  As  an  article 
of  diet  it  is  gaining  in  favor  everywhere.  It  is  a  staple 
article  with  nations.  In  its  immature  condition  it  con- 
tains much  starch,  which,  on  ripening,  turns  to  sugar. 
From  the  unripe  fruit,  dried  in  the  sun,  a  flour  is  made 
containing  about  70  per  cent  of  starch,  which  is  about  the 
amount  in  wheat  flour.  The  plant  requires  little  cultiva- 
tion. When  the  stalk  of  a  banana  plant  is  cut  down,  all 
the  sprouts  are  removed  but  one,  which  grows  with  the 
vigor  imparted  by  the  main  root,  and  bears  fruit  in  from 
three  to  four  months,  while  the  transplanted  sprouts  re- 
quire from  nine  to  ten  months  to  mature  their  fruit.  Each 
plant  bears  several  clusters  of  fruit,  each  weighing  from 
fifty  to  eighty  pounds.  The  chemical  analysis  of  the 
banana  is  as  follows: 

Nitrogen 4.8 

Sugar 19.7 

Fatty  and  saline  matter 1.5 

Water. ...74. 

THE  ORANGE. 

This  fruit  is  rapidly  working  its  way  to  the  frost  line  of 
all  countries.  Trees  bear  fruit  from  fifty  to  eighty  years, 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  149 

and  produce  in  favorable  seasons  from  five  to  fifteen  hun- 
dred oranges  per  tree.  Besides  being  an  agreeable  and 
wholesome  article  of  diet,  the  orange  abounds  in  citric 
acid,  and  hence  is  of  value  medicinally.  Its  juice  is  used 
as  a  cooling  drink  in  fevers.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  the  fruit  was  about  the  size  of  a  walnut^ 
and  quite  bitter  to  the  taste.  Its  greatest  improvement  in 
size  and  quality  has  occurred  during  the  last  two  hundred 
years.  Starting  from  Southern  China  and  the  Burmese 
Peninsula  the  orange  spread  westward  through  the  agency 
of  the  Moors,  first  through  Northern  Africa  and  later 
through  Spain.  The  Crusaders  brought  it  from  Pales- 
tine to  Italy.  The  Spaniards  introduced  it  into  Cuba; 
and  from  Cuba  it  has  spread  over  a  large  portion  of  the 
Western  continent.  An  analysis  of  the  juice  of  the 
orange  shows  citric  and  malic  acids,  citrate  of  lime,  sugar, 
alliiimen,  and  water. 

THE    APPLE. 

This  is  the  most  widely  cultivated  of  all  fruits,  and  is 
grown  in  nearly  all  of  the  inhabited  portions  of  the  tem- 
perate zone.  There  are  a  great  number  of  varieties,  usu- 
ally classed  under  three  heads:  for  dessert;  for  culinary 
purposes;  and  for  the  making  of  cider.  By  far  the  finest 
of  all  apples  is  the  Newtown  pippin — a  solid,  globular,  very 
juicy  apple  of  the  finest  flavor.  It  ripens  in  the  fall  and 
may  be  kept  in  good  condition  until  late  in  the  spring. 
Its  chemical  analysis  is  as  follows: 

Water.... .* 81.87 

Sugar 10.36 

Free  Acid 48 

Albuminoids..  7.29 


150  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

FIGS. 

(Dried  and  Fresh.) 

This  fruit  constitutes  a  large  part  of  the  food  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Western  Asia  and  Southern  Europe.  Great 
Britain  annually  imports  about  9,000  tons  of  dried  and 
pressed  figs,  besides  growing  a  small  amount  of  fresh  figs 
in  Southern  England,  which  there,  however,  require  shel- 
ter from  frosts.  The  large  amount  of  grape  sugar  in  figs 
admits  of  their  easy  preservation  by  the  process  of  drying 
in  the  sun.  The  chemical  analysis  of  figs  (dried)  is  as 
follows: 

Sugar 62.5 

Fat 9 

Gum  and  Phosphoric  Acid  5.6 

Fibrin,  etc 15. 

Water 16. 

DATES. 

Palgrave  says,  "  Those  who  know  the  date  only  from 
the  dried  specimens  in  stores  can  hardly  imagine  how 
delicious  it  is  when  eaten  fresh  and  in  Central  Arabia. 
Nor  is  it,  when  newly  gathered,  heating;  nor  does  its 
richness  bring  satiety." 

In  Arabia  it  is  the  staple  food  and  the  chief  source  of 
national  wealth.  There  are  many  varieties.  The  ordin- 
ary commercial  date  contains  a  large  amount  of  sugar. 
The  finest  variety  for  table  use  is  known  as  the  Fard  date. 
It  contains  a  much  smaller  per  cent  of  sugar  then  the 
ordinary  date.  Served  with  cream  at  breakfast  it  is  a 
delicious  dish,  and  in  the  winter  months  should  supersede 
the  ordinary  oatmeal.  Its  chemical  analysis  is: 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  151 

Sugar     58. 

Pectine 8.9 

Gum  and  Fat 3.7 

Bassorin 4.1 

Fiber 2.3 

Water 23. 

PRUNES. 

The  prune  is  a  certain  species  of  plum,  dried.  Not 
many  years  ago  it  was  considered  a  delicacy,  and  as  such 
was  imported  in  small  quantities,  mainly  from  France. 
To-day  hundreds  of  orchards  in  the  United  States  are 
devoted  to  its  culture.  The  largest  of  these  are  located 
in  Santa  Clara  county,  California,  and  in  1895  this  county 
produced  forty  million  pounds  of  prunes. 

The  Californian  prune  is  preferred  to  the  imported,  be- 
cause it  is  larger  and  more  tender,  as  it  loses  less  weight 
by  evaporation,  and  is  cheaper. 

Prunes  with  cream  make  a  delicious  summer  dish,  and 
those  who  substitute  cooked  prunes  at  breakfast  for  bread, 
hot  cakes,  or  rolls  will  feel  the  gain  mentally  and  physi- 
cally. Prunes  are  also  a  natural  and  gentle  laxative,  and 
even  the  most  obstinate  cases  of  constipation  may  be  cured 
by  eating  freely  of  this  fruit  each  morning  on  arising. 

The  consumption  of  this  nutritious  food  is  increasing 
enormously,  many  families  using  from  two  to  three  hun- 
dred pounds  annually. 

The  value  of  prunes  as  a  food  and  their  palatability 
depend  largely  upon  their  preparation. 

All  dried  fruit  should  be  soaked  in  clear  water  until  the 
moisture  lost  in  drying  has  been  nearly  replaced.  In 


152  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

drying,  the  tissues  of  the  fruit  shrink  and  chemical 
changes  take  place,  evidenced  by  the  change  in  flavor. 
Soaking  separates  again  these  tissues  and  reforms  the  juice. 

Dried  fruit  should  not  be  boiled,  as  boiling  hardens  the 
tissues,  breaks  up  the  fruit,  and  changes  both  its  flavor 
and  digestibility.  The  temperature  should  never  be 
raised  above  180°  Fahr.  (a  low  simmer),  at  which  it  may 
stand  for  hours. 

All  sugar  should  be  cooked  with  the  fruit.  When 
prunes  are  cooked  properly  they  remain  whole  and  the 
liquor  is  clear;  the  skin  is  tender  and  the  pulp  uniformly 
soft  and  delicious. 

Dried  fruit  should  be  kept  in  a  cool,  moist  place,  pro- 
tected from  dust  and  insects.  If  the  surface  shows  sugar 
its  freshness  may  be  restored  by  dipping  in  boiling  water 
containing  an  ounce  of  borax  to  the  gallon.  After  drain- 
ing it  should  stand  two  hours  before  boxing. 

Fish,  fowl,  and  animal  food  taken  as  a  class  contain, 
next  to  fruit,  the  least  amount  of  earthy  salts.  The  flesh 
of  most  fish  contains  from  1.2  to  1.4  per  cent  of  salts, 
which  is  a  less  average  than  most  animal  foods,  the  dif- 
ference being  considerable.  It  is  therefore  better  adapted 
as  a  diet  to  longevity  than  butchers'  meat.  Fish  also  con- 
tains phosphorus.  The  salmon  is  especially  rich  in  this 
ingredient.  Shell-fish  contain  considerable  phosphorus, 
but  more  earthy  matter  than  fin  and  scale  fish. 

The  necessity  of  phosphorus  for  brain  workers  or  for 
those  of  sedentary  habits  is  an  established  fact;  hence  the 
diet  of  this  class  should  include  fish  in  preference  to 
meat. 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  153 

In  ease  of  digestion  fish  is  next  to  fruit.  Of  all  fish, 
trout,  salmon  trout,  and  tomcod  are  the  most  easily 
digested.  Fish  with  hutter  is  especially  desirable  for  ner- 
vous people.  Oysters,  when  raw,  require  two  hours  and 
fifty-five  minutes  fo**  digestion;  when  roasted,  three  hours 
and  a  quarter;  and  if  stewed,  three  hours  and  a  half. 

The  flesh  of  poultry  and  game  contains  less  earthy  salts 
than  beef  or  mutton  and  is  easier  of  digestion,  especially 
that  of  short  fiber.  The  white  meat  of  the  turkey  is  a 
good  example  of  short  fiber,  and  is  digested  in  two  hours 
and  thirty  minutes;  while  the  long  and  coarse  fiber  of  the 
goose  is  digested  with  difficulty.  The  leg  of  a  chicken  or 
duck  is  less  digestible  than  the  breast. 

Animal  meat  may  be  of  use  to  those  who  lead  a  life  of 
great  physical  exertion,  but  it  certainly  is  not  suited  to 
those  of  sedentary  habits.  The  necessity  for  meat  is  a 
debatable  question.  Liebig  has  written:  "It  is  certain 
that  three  men,  one  of  whom  has  had  a  full  meal  of  beef 
with  bread;  the  second,  cheese  or  salt  fish,  and  the  third, 
potatoes,  regard  a  difficulty  from  entirely  different  points 
of  view."  Dr.  Guy  states:  "We  possess  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  the  sufficiency  of  a  diet  from  which  meat  is 
wholly  excluded."  Dr.  Pavy  is  careful  to  state  that  he 
does  not  advocate  a  non-meat  dietary,  but  is  opposed  to 
the  prevalent  view  that  a  certain  quantity  of  meat  is  neces- 
sary to  vigor.  Dr.  Beaumont,  an  authority  on  digestion, 
states  that  the  flesh  of  animals  is  slow  of  digestion.  Un- 
doubtedly a  greater  feeling  of  satiety  is  produced  by  meat 
than  by  other  food.  It  forms  a  greater  stay  to  the 


154  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

stomach,  arising  from  the  fact  that  the  stomach  consti- 
tutes the  seat  of  its  lengthy  digestion. 

Time  required  for 
digestion. 

Beef  (fried) 4    hours 

Beef  roasted,  fresh,  lean,  rare 3        " 

Beef  salted 4i      " 

Beef  suet 5|      " 

Mutton,  broiled 3        " 

Mutton  roasted 3i      " 

Lamb  broiled   2£      " 

Veal  broiled 4        " 

Veal  fried 4^      " 

Pork  broiled 3i      " 

Pork  fried 4i      " 

Meats,  as  a  class,  contain  an  excess  of  albuminoids,  as 

shown  by  the  following  analysis  of  the  muscles  or  lean 

parts: 

Water.  Albumen.  Gelatin. 

Beef 74  .20  .06 

Veal 75  .19  .06 

Mutton 71  .22  07 

Pork 76  .19  .05 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  eats 
too  much  meat.  Fothergill  believes  that  in  health  the 
liver  is  able  to  deal  successfully  with  a  quantity  of  albu- 
minoids far  in  excess  of  the  bodily  needs.  While  it  pos- 
sesses this  spare  power  all  is  well,  but,  long  continued 
overwork,  in  dealing  with  excessive  quantities  of  this  food, 
must  result  in  the  gradual  impairment  of  its  functional 
powers. 

Eggs  contain  1.5  per  cent  of  salts,  much  less  than  beef 
or  mutton.  Milk  contains  about  .7  per  cent  of  salts. 
Cheese  contains  salts  in  about  the  same  proportion  as 


WHAT  TO  EAT,  165 

milk  deprived  of  its  water.  Analysis  shows  5  per  cent 
which  is  in  proportion  to  its  highly  nourishing  properties. 
Butter  is  composed  of  fat,  and  contains  about  2  per  cent 
of  salts.  The  potato  contains  about  .9  per  cent  of  salts, 
1.4  per  cent  of  albuminous  matter,  15.5  per  cent  starch, 
some  sugar  and  a  small  quantity  of  fat  and  free  citric 
acid.  The  onion  is  very  nutritious.  It  contains  a  small 
quantity  of  phosphate  of  lime  and  an  excess  of  phosphoric 
acid.  Most  other  vegetables  have  about  the  same  nour- 
ishing properties  as  the  potato,  about  the  same  amount  of 
earthy  salts,  but  contain  more  water  and  less  starch.  The 
cucumber  and  mushroom  are  exceptions,  and  resemble 
fruit. 

Cereals  contain  large  quantities  of  mineral  matter.  Dr. 
Pereira  states  that  they  furnish  more  of  the  earthy  sub- 
stances than  the  system  requires. 

"  Notwithstanding  that  bread  is  denominated  the  staff 
of  life,  alone  it  does  not  appear  to  be  capable  of  support- 
ing prolonged  human  existence.  Boussingault  came  to 
this  conclusion,  and  the  reports  of  the  inspectors  of 
prisons  on  the  effect  of  a  diet  of  bread  and  water  favor 
this  opinion.'' — Pereira. 

Herodotus  described  a  visit  of  some  Persian  Ambas- 
sadors to  the  long-lived  Ethiopians  (Macrobi).  An  am- 
bassador asked  what  the  Persian  king  was  wont  to  eat, 
and  what  age  the  longest  lived  of  the  Persians  had  been 
known  to  attain.  They  told  him  that  the  king  ate  bread, 
and  described  the  nature  of  wheat,  adding  that  eighty 
years  was  the  longest  term  of  man's  life  among  the  Per- 
sians, He  remarked,  it  did  not  surprise  him,  if  they  fed 


156  WHAT  TO  EAT. 

on  dirt  (bread),  that  they  died  so  soon;  indeed,  he  was 
sure  they  never  would  have  lived  as  long  as  eighty  years 
except  for  the  refreshment  they  got  from  that  drink  (mean- 
ing the  wine),  wherein  he  confessed  the  Persians  sur- 
passed the  Ethiopians.  The  Macrobi  ate  boiled  flesh, 
and  had  for  their  drink  nothing  but  milk.  They  lived  to 
the  age  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years. 

Leguminous  seeds  (peas,  beans,  etc.)  are  supposed  to 
be  less  nutritive  than  the  cereals,  although  the  former 
contain  more  nitrogen  than  the  latter.  Broconnot  gives 
peas  as  containing  9.26  grains  per  ounce  of  earthy  phos- 
phates. This  is  nearly  twice  the  quantity  found  in 
wheat,  and  more  than  twenty  times  the  amount  in  an 
equal  weight  of  beef. 

Many  interesting  and  well-conducted  experiments  of 
agricultural  chemists  agree  on  the  following  facts: 

1.  Vegetables  and  cereals  grown  in  soil  containing  a 
small  per  cent  of  earthy  salts  contain   a  less   amount 
than  those  grown  in  soil  rich  in  earthy  salts. 

2.  The  greater  the  quantity  of  earthy  salts  contained 
in  the  food  on  which  an  animal  subsists,  the  greater  is 
the  amount  found  in  the  flesh  of  the  animal,  and  the 
greater  is  the  amount  found  in  the  secretions  and  ex- 
cretions. 

3.  The  less  the  amount  of  earthy  salts  in  the  food,  the 
less  the  amount  found  in  the  secretions  and  excretions, 
and  the  less  the  amount  in  the  flesh. 

From  these  facts  it  is  clear  that,  in  growing  cereals  and 
vegetables  directly  for  the  use  of  man,  or  for  the  food  of 
animals  on  which  he  partly  subsists,  lime  or  any  of  the 


WHAT  TO  EAT.  157 

compounds  should  not  be  used  as  a  fertilizer.  Alkalies 
do  not  accumulate  in  the  system,  and  there  is,  therefore, 
no  objection  to  their  use. 

Phosphoric  acid  and  the  alkalies  have  both  of  them 
remarkable  properties,  and  play  an  important  part  in  the 
growth  and  nutrition  of  plants  and  animals.  This  cannot 
be  said  of  earthy  salts.  They  develop  the  bones,  but 
when  this  is  accomplished  they  accumulate,  and  cause 
ossification,  "old  age" — even  "natural  death."  Adults 
should,  therefore,  as  much  as  possible  avoid  earthy  salts 
in  their  food. 

It  is  obvious  from  the  foregoing  facts  that  fruit  is  pre- 
eminently the  food  for  longevity;  and  those  who  are  am- 
bitious to  attain  great  age  will  largely  include  this  food 
in  their  dietary. 

THE    STARCH    TABLE. 

Per  Cent.  Per  Cent. 

Arrowroot 82.  Haricot 45. 

Rice 82.  Peas 41. 

Pearl  Barley 78.  Beans 40. 

Barley  Meal 70.  Lentils  39. 

Rye  Meal 69.5  Vermicelli 38. 

Corn 67.5  Sweet  Potatoes 21.8 

Wheat  Flour 66.3  Potatoes 15.5 

Indian  Meal 64.7  Parsnips 14.5 

Oatmeal 58.4  Carrots 12.2 

Buckwheat 53.  Turnips 4. 


158 


THE   E ALSTON. 

TABLE  OF  FOODS. 


ARTICLES. 

Carbonates. 

Nitrates. 

Phosphates. 

1 

fj 

£ 

Asparagus  

5.4 

0.6 

0.4 

93.6 

Bacon     

62.5 

8.4 

0.5 

28.6 

Barley    

52.1 

12.8 

4.2 

14.0 

16.9 

Beans    

40.0 

24.0 

3.5 

14.8 

17.7 

Beef  

14.0 

19.0 

2.0 

65.0 

Buckwheat  

53.0 

8.6 

1.8 

14.2 

22.4 

Butter 

100.0 

Cabbage  

6.2 

1.2 

0.8 

91.3 

0.5 

Carrots  

12.2 

1.1 

1.0 

82.5 

3.2 

Cauliflower  

4.6 

3.6 

1.0 

90.0 

0.8 

Cheese         

28.0 

30.8 

4.7 

36.5 

Cherries     

21.0 

0.6 

1.0 

76.3 

1.1 

Chicken    

1.9 

21.6 

2.8 

73.7 

Chocolate  

88.0 

8.8 

1.8 

1.4 

Clam 

very  little 

12.0 

2.5 

Codfish 

1.0 

16.5 

2.5 

80.0 

Corn    northern 

67.5 

12.3 

1.1 

14.0 

5.1 

Corn,   southern.  .  .  . 

39.2 

34.6 

4.1 

14.0 

8  1 

Cream     

4.5 

3.5 

92.0 

1.7 

0.1 

0.5 

97.1 

0.6 

6.8 

0.9 

0.3 

81.3 

10.7 

Dates    fresh 

73.7 

24.0 

2.3 

Eels 

some  fat 

17.0 

3.5 

75.0 

E^gs   white  of  .  . 

13.0 

2.8 

84.2 

Ee^s    volk  of.  . 

29.8 

16.9 

2.0 

51.3 

Figs          

57.9 

5.0 

3.4 

18.7 

15.0 

Flounder    

some  fat 

15.0 

3.5 

78.0 

Green  Gages  

26.8 

0.3 

71.1 

1.8 

Haddock  

0.6 

14.0 

2.6 

82.8 

Halibut  

some  fat 

18.0 

3.5 

74.0 

Ham           .         ... 

32.0 

35  0 

4  4 

28.6 

Herrin^ 

some  fat 

18  0 

4  5 

75  0 

Horseradish 

4.7 

0.1 

1.0 

78.2 

16.0 

Kidney 

0.9 

21.2 

1.4 

76.5 

Lamb  . 

14.3 

19.6 

2.2 

63.9 

Lard  . 

100.0 

THE   RALSTON. 

TABLE  OF  FOODS. 


159 


ARTICLES. 

Carbonates. 

ft 

Phosphates. 

1 

1 

Lentils 

39.0 

26.0 

1.5 

14  0 

19  5 

Liver                   

3.9 

26.3 

1.2 

68.6 

Lobster          

very  little 

14.0 

5.5 

79.0 

Milk  of  cow  

8.0 

5.0 

1.0 

86.0 

Milk,   human  

7.0 

3.0 

0.5 

89.5 

14.0 

21.0 

2.0 

63.0 

Oats  

50.8 

17.0 

3.0 

13.6 

15.6 

Onions 

5.2 

0.5 

0.5 

93  8 

Oysters              .... 

12.6 

0.2 

87  2 

Parsnips          

14.5 

2.1 

1.0 

79  4 

3  0 

78.0 

4.7 

0.2 

9.5 

7  6 

Pears  

9.6 

0.1 

86.4 

3.9 

Peas 

41.0 

23.4 

2  5 

14  1 

19  0 

Pigeon 

1.9 

23.0 

2  7 

72  4 

Plaice              

very  little 

14.0 

5.5 

80  0 

Pork               

16.0 

17.5 

2.2 

64.3 

Potatoes  

15.8 

1.4 

0.9 

74.8 

7  1 

Prunes  

78.6 

3.9 

4.5 

13.0 

Radishes 

7.4 

1.2 

1  0 

89  1 

1  3 

Rice 

82.0 

5.1 

0.5 

9  o 

3  4 

Rye 

75.2 

6.5 

05 

13  5 

4  3 

Salmon            

some  fat 

20.0 

65 

74  o 

Smelt         

very  little 

17.0 

5.5 

75  o 

Sole       

0.8 

17.0 

2.5 

79.7 

Suet     

100.0 

Sweet  potatoes 

21.8 

1.5 

2  9 

67  5 

6  3 

Trout  

0.8 

16.9 

4.3 

78.0 

Turbot  

very  little 

17.0 

5.5 

79.0 

Turnips  

4.0 

1.2 

05 

90  4 

3  9 

Veal           

14.3 

17.7 

23 

65.7 

Venison.  

8.0 

20.4 

28 

68.8 

Vermicelli  

38.0 

47.5 

1  7 

12  8 

Wheat    

66.4 

14.6 

1  6 

14  0 

3  4 

Whey  

4.6 

0  7 

94  7 

Whiting  

very  little 

15.0 

5  5 

78  0 

SUMMARY. 


It  may  be  said  generally  of  those  who  die  between  the 
ages  of  fifty  and  seventy,  from  the  effects  of  contracted 
organic  disease  or  the  breaking  down  of  the  system,  that 
crimes  have  been  committed  against  Nature's  laws.  Civ- 
ilization has  produced  statutes  which  exact  penalties  for 
every  form  of  human  culpability.  Through  mitigating 
and  other  circumstances  these  laws  are  frequently  ren- 
dered inoperative.  It  is  not  so  with  the  laws  of  Nature, 
for  exact  compensation  is  demanded  for  each  and  every 
transgression,  and  from  such  demand  no  appeal  may  be 
taken. 

The  question,  "Is  life  worth  living ?"  is  answered  by 
the  successful  always  in  the  affirmative.  Success  is  usu- 
ally the  result  of  mental  activity  based  on  sound  physical 
condition.  Certainly  the  possession  of  the  latter  gives  a 
tremendous  advantage  in  the  race  for  a  competency,  and  a 
well-balanced  mentality  should  be  equal  to  the  problem 
of  regulating  the  outgo  with  the  actual  income.  The  ad- 
vantage of  living  within  one's  income  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated, for  it  represents  the  difference  between  happiness 
and  misery.  Most  people  at  some  period  of  their  lives 
have  had  more  or  less  experience  with  financial  worries, 
and  the  resulting  wear  and  tear  of  the  nervous  system. 
In  the  majority  of  cases  the  trouble  may  be  traced  to  ex- 
travagance in  current  expenses. 

(160) 


SUMMARY.  161 

The  exact  cost  of  living  scientifically  is  so  small  that 
one  must  be  poor  indeed  who  cannot  secure  the  required 
amount.  Assuming  that  the  average  adult  requires  daily 
from  15  to  25  ounces  of  solid  food,  a  simple  calculation  of 
market  prices  of  food  products  will  show  the  necessary 
expense.  Comparison  of  same  with  existing  habits  will, 
as  a  rule,  show  a  wide  difference  between  what  is  and  what 
should  be.  The  great  error  of  mankind  springs  from  the 
palate,  which  usually  becomes  the  master  rather  than  the 
slave.  The  first  transgression  invites  continuance,  and  if 
habit,  based  on  the  pleasures  of  the  palate,  becomes  fixed, 
it  is  difficult  to  overthrow.  Once  conquered,  however,  it 
may  be  as  firmly  fixed  in  a  new  direction,  involving  les- 
sened quantity  and  consideration  of  chemical  constituents. 
It  has  been  shown  that  if  food  and  drink  contains  lime 
and  earth  salts  a  thickening  of  the  inner  walls  of  the  arte- 
ries due  to  these  mineral  deposits  must  ensue,  and  when 
the  arterial  system  becomes  clogged  death  from  this  cause 
is  near. 

Extreme  care  and  attention  are  bestowed 'on  machinery, 
the  handiwork  of  man.  Every  effort  is  made  to  increase 
its  term  of  service.  The  tubular  boiler  is  fed  as  far  as 
possible  with  condensed  (distilled)  water  to  lessen  the 
calcareous  and  salty  deposits  which  form  a  coating  on  the 
metal.  Occasionally  chemicals  are  used  to  eliminate 
these  deposits  from  the  tubes,  which  correspond  to  human 
arteries.  It  is  only  an  inferior  engineer  that  allows  the 
boiler  under  his  supervision  to  become  clogged  in  this 
manner;  and  yet  the  most  skillful  mechanic  gives  little 


162  SUMMARY. 

heed  to  that  complicated  piece  of  machinery  always  under 
his  care — his  physical  being.  Yet,  whether  we  consider 
the  tubes  of  a  boiler  or  the  arteries  of  man,  the  proposition 
is  the  same,  and  it  is  to  the  food  and  drink  that  we  musfc 
look  for  the  preventive  as  well  as  the  cause. 

One  of  the  strongest  instances  of  the  effect  of  food  and 
drink  may  be  found  in  a  comparison  of  the  domestic  with 
the  wild  horse.  The  latter  is  graminivorous  (grass-eating), 
while  the  food  of  the  former  is  of  a  starchy  or  ossifying 
character.  An  equal  difference  probably  exists  in  the 
drink.  The  wild  horse  lives  to  the  age  of  fifty  years,  and 
is  vigorous  and  strong  at  double  the  age  reached  by  the 
domestic  animal.  The  latter  soon  becomes  prematurely 
old  from  the  deposition  of  earthy  salts.  This  process  is 
to  some  extent  accelerated  by  hard  work,  which  increases 
transpiration,  thereby  requiring  additional  water,  which  is 
frequently  of  a  hard  character. 

The  following  analysis  of  meadow  grass  will  show  that 
the  food  of  the  wild  horse  is  largely  nitrogenous  and  con- 
tains from  66  to  70  per  cent  of  pure  water. 

Cut  June,  1887.      Cut  Oct.  1887. 

Water 66.55  70.99 

Digestible  Albuminoids 1.63  2.40 

Indigestible  Albuminoids .88  .78 

Non-Albuminoid  Nitrogenous  Comp'ds.  .48  1.03 

Fat,  Wax,  and  Chlorophyl .82  .88 

Extractive  Matter  (nitrogen  free) 17.05  14.49 

Ash 2.42  3.20 

Woody  Fiber 10.17  6.23 

100.00  100.00 


SUMMARY.  163 

Densmore,  in  his  valuable  work,  "  How  Nature  Cures," 
writes  as  follows  on  the  subject: 

"  Since,  however,  starchy  seeds  are  naturally  wide-spread 
over  the  earth,  it  would  be  strange  if  no  animal  were  found 
whose  organs  are  adapted  by  nature  to  utilize  them  as  a 
food;  and  it  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  universal  har- 
mony of  nature  that  there  are  a  multitude  of  animals  for 
which  starchy  seeds  are  a  natural  food." 

The  following  extract  is  taken  from  the  Hartford  Jour- 
nal, and  may  serve  to  answer  that  oft-repeated  inquiry, 
What  are  the  grains  sent  for? 

"  Before  the  food  is  prepared  for  digestion,  therefore,  the 
grains  must  be  subjected  to  a  triturating  process,  and 
such  as  are  not  sufficiently  bruised  in  this  manner,  be- 
fore passing  into  the  gizzard,  are  then  reduced  to  the 
proper  state  by  its  natural  action.  The  action  of  the  giz- 
zard is  in  this  respect  mechanical,  this  organ  serving  as  a 
mill  to  grind  the  feed  to  pieces,  and  then,  by  means  of  its 
powerful  muscles,  pressing  it  gradually  into  the  intestines, 
in  the  form  of  a  pulp.  The  power  of  this  organ  is  said  to 
be  sufficient  to  pulverize  hollow  globules  of  glass  in  a  very 
short  time,  and  solid  masses  of  the  same  substance  in  a 
few  weeks.  The  rapidity  of  this  process  seems  to  be  pro- 
portionate generally  to  the  size  of  the  bird.  A  chicken, 
for  example,  breaks  up  such  substances  as  are  received 
into  its  stomach  less  rapidly  than  the  capon,  while  a  goose 
performs  the  same  operation  sooner  than  either.  Needles 
and  even  lancets  given  to  turkeys  have  been  broken  in 
pieces  and  voided  without  any  apparent  injury  to  the 
stomach.  The  reason  undoubtedly  is  that  the  larger 


164  SUMMARY. 

species  of  birds  have  thicker  and  more  powerful  organs  of 
digestion." 

"  When  all  these  facts  are  carefully  considered,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  birds  are  the  only  animals  for 
which  grains  are  the  natural  food,  and  for  this  reason 
birds  are  provided  by  nature  with  a  totally  different 
digestive  apparatus  from  that  possessed  by  any  other  ani- 
mal; and  furthermore,  the  only  other  animals  living 
principally  on  starch  foods  are  man  and  those  animals 
under  his  control. 

"  When  we  consider  the  universality  of  the  reign  of  law, 
and  the  fact  that  man  and  the  animals  which  he  has 
controlled  are  the  only  ones  which  are  habitually  out  of 
health;  that  man  in  a  state  of  nature  must  have  excluded 
cereals  and  starch  foods  from  his  dietary;  and  that  the 
herbivora,  the  graminivora,  the  omnivora,  the  fishes,  and 
many  birds  live  on  a  diet  in  which  cereals  and  starchy 
foods  constitute  only  an  insignificant  portion — when  all 
these  facts  are  considered,  is  there  any  reasonable  ground 
for  considering  that  nature  made  an  exception  in  the  case 
of  the  single  animal,  man?  Is  it  not  more  reasonable  to 
believe,  since  man  in  a  state  of  nature  did  not  have  cereal 
foods,  and  since  all  the  other  species  of  the  animal  king- 
dom subsist  on  food  largely  nitrogenous,  that  man  in  sub- 
stituting cereals  for  his  sweet  fruits  has  departed  from  the 
order  and  intent  of  nature,  and  in  so  doing  has  brought 
upon  himself  the  inevitable  penalty  of  broken-down  or- 
gans, and  laid  the  foundation  of  modern  diseases?  " 

Robotham  is  the  authority  for  the  following  interesting 
facts  and  statistics: 


SUMMARY.  165 

Bread  and  potatoes  constituting  so  large  a  proportion  of 
the  diet  of  the  working  class,  and  containing  so  large  a 
quantity  of  earthy  matter,  must  inevitably  render  them 
more  liable  to  disease  and  premature  old  age  and  death 
than  the  wealthier  classes  who  use  more  animal  food? 
fowl,  fish,  fresh  vegetables,  fruits,  wines,  and  other  lux- 
uries. And  so  it  is  found  that  the  rate  of  mortality  among 
the  poor  is  much  greater  than  among  the  rich,  as  the  fol- 
lowing table  will  show: 

From  the  age  of  25  to  40  205  rich  and    550  poor  die. 

"        "     "     "  40  to  50  244     "       "      426     "       " 

"        "     "     "  50  to  60  349     "      "      718     "       " 

"        "     "    "  60  to  70  737     "      "    1501     "       " 

"        "     "     "  70  to  80  1489     "      "    2873    "       " 

Women  are  generally  more  analogous  to  children  in 
choice  of  their  food  than  men;  they  also  consume  a 
smaller  quantity,  but  are  mostly  fond  of  the  best  descrip- 
tion. Instead  of  a  large  amount  of  rough  solid  food,  they 
prefer  a  smaller  proportion  of  aliment,  and  that  of  a  more 
fluid,  pulpy,  and  nutritious  nature.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
quantity  as  the  quality  they  care  for.  The  consequence 
of  this  course  is  the  avoidance  of  a  large  amount  of  earthy 
matter,  and  they  are  therefore  softer  and  more  flexible — 
less  ossified  than  men,  and  require  more  time  to  harden 
to  that  degree  which  produces  death;  hence  women  are 
found  to  live  longer  than  men. 

On  this  principle  we  may  at  once  account  for  the  fact 
that,  notwithstanding  the  causes  of  disease  and  dangers 
peculiarly  incidental  to  females,  the  number  of  females  in 
England  is  far  greater  than  the  number  of  males.  This 


166  SUMMARY. 

difference  cannot  be  attributed  to  the  sacrifice  of  male 
lives  in  war;  but  solely,  or  chiefly  at  least,  to  the  greater 
longevity  of  females;  which  extra  longevity  is  the  conse- 
quence of  their  being  less  attached  to  solid,  earthy  food. 
It  is  true  that  many  women  are  as  stout  and  bony,  and 
as  rough  as  men,  and  are  as  liable  to  premature  decrepi- 
tude and  death;  but  these  will  always  be  found  to  eat  and 
drink  like  men. 

If  two  persons,  or  two  classes  of  persons,  subsist  upon 
the  same  kind  of  food  and  drink,  and  one  consumes  less 
than  the  other,  a  less  amount  of  earthy  matter  will  be 
taken  into  the  system,  the  process  of  ossification  will  nec- 
essarily proceed  less  rapidly,  and  life  will  be  enjoyed  for 
a  longer  period.  A  direct  practical  proof  of  this  is  found 
in  the  following  statistics  of  prisons  and  workhouses. 

Weekly  cost  of  food  Amount  of  sickness 

in  the  s.  d.  per  annum. 

Wakefield  House 1 :  8£  6  per  cent. 

Suffolk  County  Jail 1:9  10        " 

Woodbridge  Jail 3:6  18        " 

Northallerton  Jail 5: 0£  37        " 

By  this  we  clearly  perceive  that  sickness  and  disease 
increase  in  proportion  as  food  increases. 

From  the  returns  respecting  the  diet  and  mortality  in 
sixty  different  prisons,  sickness  and  mortality  appear  to 
increase  in  proportion  as  the  consumption  of  food  in- 
creases. 

In  20  prisons  the  average  weekly 

consumption  ol  Sickness.  Deatka. 

Solid  Food  was 188  oz.    3  per  cent  1  in  622 

In  20  others  the  amount  was 213  oz.  18  per  cent  1  in  320 

In  20  others  the  amount  was 218  oz.  23  per  cent  1  in  266 


SUMMARY.  167 

Although  we  have  seen  by  the  foregoing  tables  and  other 
evidence  that  sickness  and  death  advance  with  an  increase 
of  solid  food,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  this  is  applica- 
ble in  the  contrary  direction  beyond  a  certain  point.  It 
certainly  would  appear,  at  first  sight,  that  the  less  food  we 
take  the  better  will  be  our  health,  and  the  longer  we  live; 
but  when  we  know  that  the  human  body  is  continually 
wasting — that  its  elements  are  constantly  being  thrown 
off,  we  shall  see  the  necessity  for  supplying,  at  least,  as 
much  nourishment  as  will  equal  the  amount  wasted.  This 
is  the  minimum  point.  Below  this  we  cannot  go  without 
producing  injury  to  the  system.  If  we  fail  to  take  in  as 
much  nutriment  as  the  body  throws  off,  sickness  and 
death  will  speedily  and  inevitably  follow.  But  through 
all  degrees  above  this  minimum  point,  the  less  we  eat  and 
drink  the  more  shall  we  retard  the  process  of  ossification; 
the  longer  will  it  take  to  choke  up  or  consolidate  the  body 
to  that  degree  which  constitutes  old  age  or  decrepitude; 
and  the  longer  shall  we  enjoy  existence.  Abstemiousness, 
as  far  as  it  regards  the  food  in  ordinary  use,  such  as  bread, 
potatoes,  and  other  gross,  solid  articles,  will  certainly  con- 
duce to  health  and  long  life. 

The  following  interesting  address  on  "Old  Age,"  by 
Sir  James  Crichton  Browne,  was  published  in  the  British 
Medical  Journal,  October  31, 1891: 

It  is  of  old  age  that  I  would  speak  to  you,  and  the  sub- 
ject, although  at  a  first  glance  it  may  seem  of  little  im- 
mediate concern  to  you,  still  in  the  heyday  of  your  youth, 
is  yet  well  deserving  of  your  thoughtful  consideration,  for 
it  ought  to  be  one  of  your  great  aims  in  life  to  grow  old 


168  SUMMARY. 

yourselves,  and  to  be  the  cause  of  old  age  in  others 
Now,  the  popular  impression  assuredly  is  that  it  is  well 
with  old  age  in  these  days.  Paragraphs  which  appear  in 
the  newspapers  now  and  again,  pointing  out  that  a  dozen 
old  people  whose  deaths  are  recorded  in  the  Times  on 
some  particular  day  have  collectively  beaten  the  record  of 
Methuselah,  and  the  striking  decline  in  the  death  rate  of 
England  and  Wales  which  has  been  going  on  for  the  last 
thirty  years,  has  created  a  belief,  fostered  by  those  genial 
optimists  whom  we  have  always  with  us,  that  we  are  ad- 
vancing toward  health  and  longevity  all  along  the  line. 
Well,  the  reduction  in  the  death  rate  in  this  country  is  an 
indisputable  and  gratifying  fact.  The  new  census  returns 
indicate  that  that  reduction  has  not  been  quite  as  great 
as  our  calculations  founded  on  estimated  population  had 
led  us  to  hope,  but  still  it  has  been  large  and  remarkable. 
The  improved  drainage  of  land  and  construction  of  houses, 
the  enforcement  of  vaccination,  the  vastly  increased  atten- 
tion bestowed  on  cleanliness  (personal,  domestic,  and 
civic),  and  on  all  sanitary  requirements,  and  the  accumu- 
lated wealth  of  the  nation  leading  to  a  higher  standard  of 
living,  have  resulted  in  an  enormous  saving  of  life;  but  I 
must  call  upon  you  to  note,  what  is  often  overlooked,  that 
this  saving  of  life  has  been  effected  mainly  in  its  first 
half.  It  is  among  infants,  children,  and  young  persons 
that  the  large  reduction  in  the  death  rate  has  taken  place, 
while  among  persons  past  middle  age  the  reduction  in 
that  rate  has  been  comparatively  trifling.  I  am  not  go- 
ing to  worry  you  with  statistical  tables  which  I  have  pre- 
pared, but  I  may  tell  you  generally  that  since  the  year 


SUMMARY.  169 

1859  the  decline  in  the  death  rate  has  been  17.6  per  cent 
at  all  ages  under  55,  and  only  2.7  per  cent  at  all  ages 
above  55.  The  principal  decline  has  taken  place  at  ages 
under  35;  after  45  the  decline  is  insignificant,  and  from 
65  to  75  there  has  actually  been  an  increase  in  the  death 
rate. 

It  is  incontestable  that  old  age  is  being  slowly  short- 
ened, and  that  the  present  increased  mortality  at  higher 
ages  cannot  be  explained  by  diminished  mortality  at 
lower  ones,  even  supposing  increased  delicacy  in  those 
who  survive.  It  is  not  satisfactory  to  find  in  our  popu- 
lation an  enormous  increase  of  babies,  children,  and  callow 
young  men  and  women,  without  any  proportionate  in- 
crease in  the  number  of  ripe  and  experienced  specimens 
of  our  race,  of  goodly  matrons  and  tried  veterans. 

But  matrons  and  veterans — ripe  and  experienced  spec- 
imens of  our  race — have  participated  with  the  young  and 
immature  in  the  benefits  of  those  improved  sanitary  and 
social  conditions  to  which  the  reduction  in  the  death-rate 
has  been  ascribed.  Fever,  small-pox,  and  phthisis  have 
been  less  fatal  to  the  aged  of  late  years  than  they  for- 
merly were;  and  if  the  death  rate  due  to  them  has  dimin- 
ished, while  the  general  death  rate  has  risen,  it  is  clear 
that  the  mortality  from  some  other  diseases  must  have 
increased  to  an  extent  to  compensate  for  the  diminution 
thus  caused,  as  well  as  to  account  for  any  increase  in  the 
general  death  rate. 

What,  then,  are  the  diseases  which  have  become  more 
prevalent  and  fatal  of  late  years,  and  in  consequence  of 
the  increased  fatality  of  which  fewer  persons  in  this 


170  SUMMARY. 

country  can  expect  to  reach  old  age?  A  detailed  answer 
to  that  question  would  involve  long  explanations  and 
abstruse  figures,  but  my  present  purpose  will  be  served 
by  naming  to  you  three  or  four  of  the  diseases,  or  groups 
of  diseases,  the  mortality  from  which  is  largely  on  the 
increase.  Cancer  carried  off  35,654  persons  in  England 
and  Wales  in  the  five  years  from  1859  to  1863,  but  it  de- 
stroyed no  fewer  than  81,620  in  the  five  years  from  1884 
to  1888,  the  ratio  of  deaths  from  it  being  354  per  million 
living  in  the  former  period,  and  585  per  million  in  the 
latter,  and  seven-eighths  of  the  victims  of  malignant  can- 
cer are  above  45  years  of  age.  Heart  diseases  carried  off 
92,181  persons  in  the  five  years  1859  to  1863,  but  they 
destroyed  224,102  persons  in  the  five  years  1884  to  1888, 
the  ratio  of  deaths  to  each  one  million  living  being  915  in 
the  former  quinquennium  and  1,606  in  the  latter,  and  the 
heavy  mortality  from  these  diseases  falls  after  35  years  of 
age.  Nervous  disease  carried  off  196,906  in  the  five  years 
1864  to  1868,  but  they  destroyed  260,558  persons  in  the 
five  years  1884  to  1888,  the  ratio  of  deaths  to  each  one 
million  living  being  1,585  in  the  former  quinquennium 
and  1,793  in  the  latter,  and  the  increased  mortality  from 
these  diseases  comes  after  35.  Kidney  diseases  carried 
off  23,176  in  the  five  years  1859  to  1863,  but  they  de- 
stroyed 61,371  persons  in  the  five  years  1884  to  1888,  the 
ratio  of  deaths  to  each  one  million  living  being  230  in  the 
former  and  445  in  the  latter  quinquennium,  and  these 
diseases  are  most  fatal  in  middle  and  advanced  life. 

But  still  more  unsatisfactory  reflections  in  connection 
with  old  age  remain  behind,  for  it  would  seem  that  if  that 


V 

SUMMARY. 

stage  of  life  is  being  shortened  at  one  end,  the  end  at 
which  we  should  gladly  see  it  extended,  it  is  being  length- 
ened at  the  other  end,  the  end  at  which  we  should  gladly 
see  abbreviated.  While  increasing  mortality  from  de- 
generative diseases  diminishes  our  prospects  of  enjoying 
a  ripe  old  age,  the  increasing  prevalence  of  minor  degen- 
erative changes  enhances  the  probability  that  we  shall  be 
plunged  into  a  premature  old  age,  and  become  decrepit 
while  still  in  what  used  to  be  considered  the  prime  of  life. 
Men  and  women  are  growing  old  before  their  time.  Old 
age  is  encroaching  on  the  strength  of  manhood,  and  the 
infirmities  associated  with  it  are  stealthily  taking  posses- 
sion of  the  system  some  years  earlier  than  they  were  wont 
to  do  in  former  generations.  Deaths  due  simply  to  old 
age  are  now  reported  between  45  and  55  years  of  age,  and 
in  large  numbers  between  55  and  60,  and  there  has  been 
a  reduction  in  the  age  at  which  atrophy  and  debility— 
another  name  for  second  childishness — kill  those  who 
have  passed  middle  life. 

Senile  insanity  due  to  atrophy  of  the  brain,  or  exag- 
gerated dotage,  is,  I  feel  sure,  far  more  common  than 
it  once  was,  and  declares  itself  on  the  average  at  an 
earlier  age  than  it  used  to  do;  and  I  know  few  more 
gloomy  experiences  than  to  visit  our  mammoth  metro- 
politan asylums,  and,  wandering  among  the  masses  of 
human  wreckage  there  heaped  up,  to  notice  the  number 
of  prematurely  old  men  and  women.  And  senile  mel- 
ancholia, which  is  sometimes  the  precursor  of  dementia, 
but  which  often  stops  short  of  it,  is  in  a  more  marked 
degree  spreading  among  us,  and  including  in  its  victims 


172  SUMMARY. 

an  increasing  number  of  those  who  are  not  really  senile 
as  years  are  counted.  Suicides  are  increasing  at  all  ages; 
they  rose  in  England  and  Wales  from  1,340  in  1864  to 
2,308  in  1888,  and  from  a  ratio  of  64  to  one  of  81  to  a  mil- 
lion living;  but  it  is  after  45  years  of  age  that  the  vast 
majority  of  them  occur,  and  it  is  between  45  and  65  that 
they  are  increasing  most  rapidly.  And  it  is  to  be  re- 
membered that  each  case  of  suicide  represents  a  large 
number  of  cases  of  melancholia  so  pronounced  as  to  be 
certificable,  and  an  exceedingly  large  number  compara- 
tively mild,  of  which  we  have  no  official  cognizance.  My 
belief  is  that  mild  senile  melancholia — a  state  of  mental 
depression  falling  short  of  madness,  but  still  morbid 
enough — occurring  at  the  turning-point  of  life  or  soon 
after  it,  is  a  lamentably  common  complaint,  often  con- 
cealed, but  sometimes  accidentally  discovered,  and  re- 
vealed far  more  frequently  to  the  practitioner  than 
specialist.  Scores  of  men  around  us,  showing  their  first 
grey  hairs,  who  in  business  and  social  intercourse  wear  a 
smiling  countenance,  are  tormented  in  private,  during 
the  silent  watches  of  the  night  or  at  the  garish  dawn,  by 
a  despondency  that  they  can  scarcely  explain,  or  that 
centers  in  fears  they  know  to  be  groundless,  but  that 
embitters  existence,  and  sometimes  renders  it  almost  un- 
bearable. 

The  fact  that  what  we  habitually  regard  as  the  in- 
firmities and  maladies  of  old  age  are  not  essential  to  it, 
you  will  the  more  easily  realize  if  you  look  at  them  singly 
and  in  detail,  instead  of  in  groups,  as  we  generally  meet 
with  them  and  think  of  them;  for  then  it  will  become 


SUMMARY.  173 

apparent  to  you  that  there  is  scarcely  one  of  them  that 
is  invariably  present  in  old  age.  As  a  rule,  the  body 
becomes  bent  in  old  age;  but  we  frequently  meet  ex- 
tremely old  men  of  an  erect  and  martial  carriage.  As  a 
rule,  the  skin  becomes  dry  and  wrinkled  in  old  age,  but 
there  are  many  cases  in  which  it  continues  smooth  and 
soft  in  octogenarians,  even  without  the  assistance  of  any 
patent  soap.  As  a  rule,  the  teeth  fall  out  in  old  age,  but 
instances  occur  in  which  they  remain  sound  in  their 
sockets  after  the  average  span  of  life  has  been  exceeded. 
As  a  rule,  sight  and  hearing  are  impaired  in  old  age, 
but  now  and  then  venerable  men  and  women  present 
themselves  in  whom  these  senses  retain  their  pristine 
acuteness.  As  a  rule,  memory  fails  in  old  age,  but  not 
rarely  it  remains  vigorous  and  trustworthy  when  senility 
has  reached  its  utmost  limit.  And  if  we  turn  from  the 
common  physiological  modifications  observed  during  old 
age  to  the  pathological  manifestations  which  are  most 
often  associated  with  it  and  peculiar  to  it,  occurring  at 
no  other  era  of  life,  we  perceive  even  more  clearly  that 
these  are  not  of  its  essence,  but  accidental  accompani- 
ments, attributable  not  to  senile  involution,  but  to  degen- 
erative influences  of  various  kinds.  Senile  osteomalacia, 
senile  gangrene,  senile  gout  and  rheumatism,  senile 
atheroma,  senile  softening  of  the  brain,  and  many  other 
senile  morbid  conditions,  although  they  occur  only  in  the 
aged,  affect  but  a  very  limited  proportion  of  them,  arise 
from  causes  operative  long  before  old  age  supervened, 
and  must  not  be  confounded  with  old  age  itself.  Old 
age  may  run  its  course  to  the  century  goal  without  being 


174  SUMMARY. 

complicated  by  any  of  these  senile  maladies  or  crippled 
by  any  of  the  senile  infirmities  enumerated;  and  to 
think  of  it  thus  stripped  of  adventitious  misfortunes  is 
to  recognize  it  as  a  less  formidable  and  deplorable  phase 
of  existence  than  we  have  been  accustomed  to  suppose 
it  to  be.  Of  course,  old  age  as  we  actually  know  it,  as 
it  abounds  around  us,  is  for  the  most  part  "  wedded  to 
calamity"  and  dowered  with  weakness;  but  my  object  is 
to  convince  you  of  the  possibility  of  a  typical  old  age  free 
from  all  these — a  long-drawn-out  euthanasia,  a  simple 
retrogression,  the  nature  of  which  I  shall  presently  more 
fully  define. 

It  is  in  the  nervous  system  that  the  most  instructive 
illustrations  of  late  and  long-sustained  evolutions  are  to 
be  observed. 

There  is  one  group  of  very  highly  integrated  psychomo- 
tor  centers  situated  in  the  ascending  frontal  and  ascend- 
ing parietal  gyri,  in  which  are  represented  the  movements 
of  the  thumb,  fingers,  wrist,  elbow,  and  shoulder — the 
movements,  in  short,  of  the  hand  and  arm.  The  evolution  of 
these  centers,  which  commences  soon  after  birth,  proceeds 
actively  and  visibly  during  childhood,  more  deliberately 
during  youth,  and  I  presume  we  should  most  of  us  say 
that  it  is  complete  about  the  nineteenth  or  twentieth  year, 
when  the  maximum  of  stature  is  arrived  at,  for  at  that  time 
the  upper  limb  seems  to  have  attained  its  full  range  of 
strength  and  precision  of  movement  But  that  is  not  the 
case.  There  is  evidence  that  the  hand  and  arm  centers 
go  on  evolving  till  a  much  later  age.  It  is  obvious  that 
great  painters  and  artists  of  all  sorts  advance  in  manual 


SUMMARY.  175 

dexterity,  in  exactness  of  execution,  in  everything  that 
goes  to  make  up  masterly  handling,  till  middle  life  or 
beyond  it. 

When  subjected  to  no  unreasonable  treatment,  but  well 
and  wisely  used,  the  hand  and  arm  centers  retain  their 
cunning  in  its  highest  degree  long  beyond  the  forty-fifth 
year,  and  although  some  failure  in  their  power  is  among 
the  inevitable  consequences  of  advancing  years,  that  fail- 
ure need  never  be  extreme.  In  rare  instances  the  hand 
has  kept  its  full  potency  at  a  ripe  old  age.  Michael 
Angelo  was  drawing  superb  designs  for  St.  Peter's  at 
Rome  shortly  before  his  death  in  his  eighty-ninth  year, 
and  I  know  examples  now  of  men  over  seventy  whose 
handwriting  is  as  good  as  it  was  at  forty,  and  who,  after 
testing  themselves,  assure  me  that  they  write  with  as 
much  facility  and  rapidity  as  they  then  did. 

But  there  are  other  centers  in  the  brain,  evolved  later 
than  those  for  the  hand  and  arm,  which  longer  than  they 
remain  fully  competent  to  the  performance  of  their  duty. 
The  emissive  speech  centers  in  the  brain,  the  motor  cen- 
ters for  the  lips,  tongue,  mouth,  or  organs  of  speech,  which 
are  situated  in  the  third  frontal  convolution,  and  per- 
haps in  the  island  of  Reil,  on  the  anterior  edge  of  the 
motor  area,  are  slower  than  those  for  the  hand  and  arm 
in  growing  to  adult  strength  and  skill.  The  infant  and 
child  laboriously  learn  to  articulate,  and  throughout  youth 
and  early  manhood  the  acquisition  of  language  goes  tar- 
dily on.  I  cannot  pause  to  explain  the  mechanism  of 
speech  or  distinguish  between  the  parts  played  in  its  pro- 
duction by  the  auditory  and  motor  centers  and  the  higher 


176  SUMMARY. 

center  in  which  concepts  are  elaborated;  but  taking  voli- 
tional language  as  a  whole,  I  would  point  out  that  the 
command  over  it  is  greatest  between  45  and  55  years  of 
age.  I  do  not  mean  to  convey  that  men  and  women  are 
most  talkative  then,  but  I  maintain  that,  as  a  rule,  it  is 
then  that  they  use  the  greatest  number  of  words  to  ex- 
press their  ideas,  and  employ  them  with  the  most  preci- 
sion and  propriety. 

With  respect  to  written  language,  the  evidence  that 
its  choicest  evolution  comes  in  what  is  called  middle  life 
is,  I  think,  cogent  and  conclusive.  Literary  genius  has 
often  blossomed  early  and  withered  too  soon  to  allow  us 
to  judge  of  the  best  bloom  of  which  it  was  capable;  but 
whenever  literary  men  have  lived  to  middle  life  or  beyond 
it,  a  progressive  expertness  in  their  use  of  the  verbal  in- 
struments of  thought  is  discernible  in  their  writings.  I 
must  not  weary  you  with  illustrations,  but  let  me  just  re- 
call to  you  that  "  Paradise  Lost,"  a  poem  which,  if  it  pos- 
sessed no  other  merit,  would  be  forever  remarkable  for  its 
wealth  of  words,  was  completed  when  Milton  was  57,  hav- 
ing been  written  in  the  five  previous  years;  that  the  trans- 
lation of  Virgil — "  noble  and  spirited,"  as  Pope  calls  it,  and 
"Alexander's  Feast,"  of  which  Hallam  has  said,  "  Every 
one  places  it  among  the  first  of  its  class,  and  many  allow 
it  no  rival,"  were  written  when  Dryden  was  66,  and  that 
"  The  Lives  of  the  Poets,"  Johnson's  greatest  work,  was 
composed,  when  he  was  72  years  old. 

In  front  of  the  speech  center,  in  the  brain,  there  are 
large  masses  of  cerebral  substance — the  frontal  lobes  that 
yield  no  response  to  electrical  stimulation.  These  lobes, 


SUMMARY.  177 

which  are  rudimentary  in  the  different  orders  of  animals, 
reach  their  highest  development  in  man,  and  in  different 
races  of  mankind  and  different  individuals  of  the  same 
race  are  always  best  developed  in  those  that  have  the 
highest  intellectual  powers.  Destruction  of  these  lobes, 
experimentally  in  monkeys  and  by  disease  in  man,  is 
followed  by  loss  of  faculty  of  the  attention,  marked  in- 
tellectual deficiency,  and  instability  of  character,  and  it 
is  no  longer  doubtful  that  in  these  lobes  are  situated  the  sub- 
strata of  the  psychical  processes  that  lie  at  the  foundation 
of  the  higher  intellectual  operations.  In  them  are  a  series 
of  centers  subserving  the  highest  human  powers,  evolved 
later  than  the  speech  centers,  and  probably  longer  than 
the  speech  centers  retaining  their  functional  vigor.  An 
analysis  of  the  powers  here  located  is  of  course  impossible 
on  this  occasion,  but  it  will  be  sufficient  for  my  present 
purpose  to  tell  you  that  judgment  and  reason  are  certainly 
dependent  on  the  integrity  of  these  centers.  Now,  judg- 
ment and  reason,  I  would  suggest,  come  to  their  perfection 
later  than  speech — in  all  likelihood  between  the  fifty-fifth 
and  sixty-fifth  years,  and  may  be  exercised  justly  until  an 
advanced  age.  Wisdom  does  not  always  come  with  years. 
Heine  made  his  good  Pole  say,  "Ah!  that  was  long,  long 
ago;  then  I  was  young  and  foolish,  now  I  am  old  and 
foolish  ";  but  still  the  counsels  of  gray  beards,  free  from  the 
ardent  passions  of  youth,  and  well  stored  with  experience, 
have  been  valued  in  all  stages  of  the  world's  history,  and 
it  would  be  easy  to  show  that  a  preponderance  of  the  works 
pre-eminently  implying  the  use  of  calm  and  powerful 
reason  must  be  ascribed  to  men  over  fifty-five.  Bacon 


178  SUMMARY. 

was  fifty-nine  when  he  produced  the  first  two  books  of  the 
"  Novum  Organon  ";  Kant  was  fifty-seven  when  the  "  Crit- 
ique of  Pure  Reason  "  appeared;  Harvey  was  seventy-three 
when  his  great  work  on  "  Generation  "  was  given  to  the 
world;  Darwin  was  fifty  when  his  "  Origin  of  Species  "  was 
issued,  fifty-nine  when  his  u  Variation  of  Plants  and  Ani- 
mals under  Domestication  "  was  published,  and  sixty-two 
when  his  "  Descent  of  Man  "  appeared.  In  almost  all  na- 
tions the  decision  on  the  most  momentous  affairs  of  state 
has  been  reserved  for  a  senate;  and  it  is  highly  note- 
worthy that  our  system  of  jurisprudence  in  this  country 
— a  fabric  of  which  we  are  justly  proud — has  been  built 
up  by  judges  from  fifty-five  to  eighty-five  yea/s  of  age. 
The  late  Dr.  W.  B.  Carpenter  said  to  me  when  nearly 
seventy  years  old:  "I  am  conscious  of  the  decline  of  life. 
My  perceptions  are  a  little  dull,  and  my  memory  has  lost 
its  grasp.  I  could  not  now  trust  to  its  safekeeping  long 
strings  of  words  as  I  did  when  learning  my  Latin  gram- 
mar as  a  boy,  but  I  am  convinced  that  my  judgment  is 
clearer  and  juster  than  it  ever  was,  and  my  feelings  are 
not  blunted." 

But  besides  judgment  and  reason  there  are  other  pow- 
ers of  mind  in  all  likelihood  localized  in  the  frontal  lobes. 
The  moral  sense  and  religious  emotions  have  probably 
here  the  substrata  necessary  for  their  manifestation,  and 
these,  although  influential  in  some  degree  throughout  life, 
evolve  most  munificently  last  of  all.  The  fruit  is  mellow- 
est when  it  is  ready  to  fall,  and  the  old  man  free  from 
canker  or  blight  sometimes  displays  new  sweetness  and 
magnanimity  when  his  course  is  all  but  run. 


SUMMARY.  179 

The  imitation  of  Shakespeare  would  not  be  an  ade- 
quate or  feasible  ideal  to  place  before  mankind  in  these 
days;  but  no  better  pattern  of  the  temper,  spirit,  and 
piety  that  ought  to  preside  in  life's  closing  scenes  can  pos- 
sibly be  presented  than  that  set  up  in  the  romantic  come- 
dies of  the  fourth  period.  We  toil  and  moil  through 
four-fifths  of  life  with  our  eyes  fixed  on  the  last  act — a 
short  span  of  gilded  dotage,  an  almshouse,  a  pension,  or  a 
peerage.  Would  it  not  be  wiser  to  hold  in  view  a  crown- 
ing evolution  of  our  qualities,  a  choice  abstract  of  our  ex- 
periences, a  sublime  crisis  in  which,  although  natural 
force  is  abated  and  the  physical  powers  flag,  the  moral 
nature,  disentangling  itself  from  selfish  ties  and  the  thral- 
dom of  passion,  rises  to  serene  heights  of  virtue,  where 
love  drives  out  fear,  and  faith,  strengthened  by  suffering, 
reigns  supreme  over  all? 

And  such  an  old  age  is  not  an  idle  dream.  Cicero 
looked  at  old  age  from  the  standpoint  of  self-assertion, 
rather  than  from  that  of  self-sacrifice.  His  ideal  old 
man  was  an  august  Roman  patrician,  crowned  with  the 
laurels  of  the  victor,  powerful  in  the  counsels  of  the 
state,  stern  and  rigorous,  still  capable  of  new  acquire- 
ments, like  Cato  the  Censor,  at  84.  But  even  Cicero  has 
left  us  softer  pictures  of  the  epoch — as  in  that  of  Appius, 
old  and  blind,  but  revered  and  beloved,  and  animated  by 
the  fervour  of  youth — and  has  described  it  as  a  time  that 
may  be  easy  and  delightful,  in  which,  after  a  long  voyage, 
sight  of  land  is  obtained,  and  the  heart  discharges  itself 
of  petty  rancor.  We,  with  our  horizon  wider  than  that 
of  Cicero,  are  able  to  see  in  old  age,  even  in  humble  life, 


180  SUMMARY. 

blessings  and  alleviations  that  were  beyond  his  ken,  and 
obtain  at  least  glimpses  of  the  truth  that  its  chief  glory 
consists,  not  in  the  remembrance  of  feats  of  prowess  or  in 
the  egotistic  exercise  of  power,  but  in  the  conquest  of 
peevish  weakness,  in  the  brightness  of  hope,  and  in  the 
dissemination  of  happiness  around.  Depend  upon  it,  the 
best  antiseptic  against  senile  decay  is  an  active  interest  in 
human  affairs,  and  that  those  keep  young  longest  who  love 
most. 

I  have  hinted  to  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen — for  in  the 
time  at  my  disposal  I  can  scarcely  more  than  hint — that 
in  the  higher  nervous  centers  evolution  goes  on  late  in  life, 
and  that  even  in  what  is  called  old  age  the  freshness  of 
youth  may  sometimes  survive.  And  I  have  hinted  also 
that  the  natural  evolution  of  the  nerve  centers  is  largely 
interfered  with  by  our  habits  of  life  and  methods  of  work; 
and  that  retrogression  is  prematurely  induced,  and  old 
age  abbreviated  and  so  loaded  with  infirmities  that  it  is 
regarded  with  apprehension  instead  of  with  quietude  and 
contentment.  And  if  you  ask  me  now  to  what  extent 
retrogression  is  hastened  and  old  age  abbreviated,  I  must 
tell  you  that  I  think  it  a  good  working  hypothesis  that 
the  natural  life  of  man  is  100,  and  that  in  so  far  as  it  falls 
short  of  that  it  is  "  curtailed  of  fair  proportion." 

Flourens'  neat  and  portable  formula  that  the  duration 
of  any  animal's  life  may  be  calculated  by  multiplying  by 
five  the  number  of  years  occupied  in  the  union  of  the  epi- 
physes  of  its  long  bones  with  their  shafts  is  not  applicable 
in  every  case;  it  fails,  indeed,  in  the  case  of  man,  in  whom 
the  coalescence  of  the  epiphyses  is  not  complete  until  his 


SUMMARV.  181 

twenty-fifth  year;  but,  nevertheless,  Flourens*  conclusion 
that  man  is  entitled  to  a  century  of  existence  was,  it  must 
be  maintained,  substantially  correct.  Buffon  thought  that 
the  duration  of  life  was  six  or  seven  times  that  of  growth, 
and  in  this  he  was  in  error,  for  it  is  probably  about  five 
times;  but  he  did  good  service  in  insisting  on  the  truth 
that  as  each  animal  has  its  definite  form,  its  limit  of  size, 
and  its  fixed  period  of  gestation  and  of  growth,  so  each 
has  its  fixed  period  of  life,  which  depends  neither  on  food, 
climate,  or  variety,  but  on  the  constitution  of  the  organ- 
ism. According  to  -Buffon's  view,  each  animal  is  pro- 
jected into  life  with  an  impetus  equal  to  carry  it  a  certain 
distance  against  average  resistance,  and  that  impetus  in 
the  case  of  man  ought  to  carry  him  just  100  years;  but 
the  increased  friction  to  which  he  is  exposed  by  all  sorts 
of  artificial  obstacles  strewn  in  his  course  leads,  in  an  im- 
mense majority  of  cases,  to  his  arrest  in  his  career  at  a 
point  far  short  of  his  natural  goal.  Still,  however,  a  select 
few  do  reach  that  goal,  and  even  run  beyond  it;  and  it  is 
upon  this  accomplished  fact,  rather  than  on  a  priori  rea- 
soning, that  we  should  base  our  hope  that  in  the  good 
days  coming,  when  sanitary  wisdom  shall  prevail  in  the 
land,  and  the  gold  fever  and  typhoid  fever  are  alike 
stamped  out,  numbers  of  our  species  may  be  able  to 
count  on  a  round  hundred  years  of  wholesome  happy  life, 
and  an  inevitable  old  age,  tranquil  and  interesting,  un- 
marred  by  the  morbid  accessories  which  are  now  generally 
attached  to  it.  It  is  the  power  of  reproduction  possessed 
by  the  cells  of  the  organism  as  controlled  by  certain  nerve 


182  SUMMARY. 

centers  that  really  determines  the  duration  of  life  and  the 
character  of  its  decline. 

Centenarians  are  not  now  the  raras  aves  which  they 
were  once  supposed  to  be.  In  England  and  Wales  in 
1889  the  deaths  of  seventy-six  reputed  centenarians  were 
reported,  and  of  late  years  a  great  number  of  cases  have 
been  strictly  inquired  into  in  which  there  could  be  no 
reasonable  doubt  that  life  had  been  prolonged  beyond 
100  years.  And  these  cases  have  been  inquired  into, 
not  only  as  to  the  legitimacy  of  their  claims  to  have 
made  out  their  century  of  life,  but  also  as  to  their  bodily 
and  mental  characteristics;  so  that  we  now  know  some- 
thing of  centenarian  pathology,  and  recognize  the  fact 
that  those  who  live  to  a  hundred  do  so  by  virtue  of  their 
freedom  from  degenerations,  and  succumb  to  an  inevitable 
old  age,  which  may  be  described  as  simple  and  general 
atrophy.  But  this  simple  and  general  atrophy,  although 
of  gradual  invasion,  need  not  very  seriously  cripple  the 
centenarian  until  close  upon  his  term  of  dissolution,  and 
cases  might  be  quoted  of  much  activity  and  enjoyment  in 
life  even  beyond  a  hundred  years  of  age. 

According  to  our  estimate,  a  man  at  80  has  a  fifth  of 
his  life  before  him,  and  in  twenty  years  what  may  not 
happen?  Sir  David  Brewster  married  at  76.  Four  years 
ago,  in  Vienna,  Janos  Meryessie,  age  84,  attempted  suicide, 
his  reason  being  that  he  could  no  longer  support  his  father 
and  mother,  who  were  aged  115  and  110,  respectively;  and 
in  the  British  Medical  Journal  of  May  9th  last  there  was 
given  the  portrait  of  a  brave  old  man,  who  at  102  had  un- 
dergone an  operation  for  cancer  of  the  lip  without  anaes- 
thetics and  without  flinching. 


SUMMARY.  183 

The  atrophic  changes  which  have  been  enumerated  as 
characteristic  of  old  age  are  not  altogether  beyond  reme- 
dial treatment.  Curable,  perhaps,  they  can  scarcely  be 
called,  but  much  may  be  done  by  change  of  climate,  by 
regulation  of  diet  and  of  habits  of  life,  and  by  therapeutic 
agents,  to  slacken  their  progress  or  arrest  their  advance. 
You  will  be  able  in  many  ways  to  lessen  the  frailties  of 
your  senile  patients,  although  you  will  not  be  able  to  con- 
fer upon  them  that  rejuvenescence  which  many  of  them, 
and  those  generally  the  most  dilapidated,  will  expect  of 
you. 

There  is  no  short  cut  to  longevity.  To  win  it  is  the 
work  of  a  lifetime,  and  the  promotion  of  it  is  a  branch  of 
public  medicine.  Perchance,  one  of  these  days,  we  may 
have  an  International  Congress  on  Old  Age,  with  an  ex- 
hibition of  dotards  for  warning,  and  of  hale  and  hearty 
centenarians  for  encouragement.  At  any  rate,  you  may 
rest  assured  that  it  is  by  steady  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
health  that  old  age  may  be  attained,  and  by  judicious 
regimen  that  it  may  be  prolonged.  The  measures  nec- 
essary for  the  promotion  of  old  age  on  the  large  scale  lie 
beyond  the  control  of  the  medical  profession.  We  cannot 
change  the  spirit  of  the  age,  abolish  avarice,  vainglory, 
and  the  lust  of  power,  or  quell  even  the  gratuitous  ex- 
cesses of  the  struggle  for  existence  that  rages  around;  but 
we  can  do  something  by  pointing  out  to  those  who  will 
listen  to  us  some  great  perils  that  may  be  avoided  by 
inculcating  the  principles  of  mental  hygiene;  and  we  can 
give  the  weight  of  our  support  to  all  movements  calculated 
to  promote  the  betterment  of  our  race. 


184  SUMMARY. 

"  Man  has  degenerated — this  degeneration  is  due  solely 
to  his  diet.  He  has  fallen;  but  we  hope  that  he  has  risen 
bo  the  highest  point  of  shortening  his  days,  and  that  in 
the  present  generation  he  will  commence  to  gradually  fall 
back  on  his  original  and  ordained  diet.  For  many  cen- 
turies the  days  of  man's  existence  have  been  little  by  little 
decreasing — it  has  been  a  gradual  fall;  but  science  assures 
us  that  he  must  rise  again,  that  his  life  on<  earth  must  be 
prolonged.  This  can  only  be  accomplished  by  a  gradual 
alteration  in  his  diet." 

"  '  Nature  is  frugal,  and  her  wants  are  few.'  Man  in 
the  savage  state  is  generally  healthy,  in  the  civilized  state 
he  is  generally  unhealthy;  and,  as  Dr.  Thompson  says, 
*  There  is  no  doubt  that  a  simple  diet  is  more  fitted  to 
accelerate  health  than  unnatural  and  stimulating  foods.'" 

"  On  reviewing  nearly  two  thousand  reported  cases  of 
persons  who  lived  more 'than  a  century,  we  generally  find 
some  peculiarity  of  diet  or  habits  to  account  for  their  al- 
leged longevity;  we  find  some  were  living  amongst  all  the 
luxuries  life  could  afford,  others  in  the  most  abject  pov- 
erty— begging  their  bread, "some  were  samples  of  symmetry 
and  physique,  others  cripples;  some  drank  large  quantities 
of  water,  others  little;  -some  were  total  abstainers  from 
alcoholic  drinks,  others  drunkards;  some  smoked  tobacco, 
others  did  not;  some  lived  entirely  on  vegetables,  others  to 
a  great  extent  on  animal  foods;  some  led  active  lives, 
others  sedentary;  some  worked  wi,th  their  brains,  others 
with  their  hands;  some  ate  one  meal  a  day,  others  four 
or  five;  some  few  ate  large  quantities  of  food,  others  a 
small  amount;  in  factrwe  notice  great  divergence  both 


SUMMARY.  185 

in  habits  and  diet,  but  in  those  cases  where  we  have  been 
able  to  obtain  a  reliable  account  of  the  diet,  we  find  one 
great  cause  which  accounts  for  the  majority  of  cases  of 
longevity:  moderation  in  the  quantity  of  food" 

The  following  instances  where  great  age  has  been 
reached  are  reasonably  authentic.  They  are  from  Easton, 
Hufeland,  Bailey,  Evans,  and  other  sources: 

Judith  Bannister,  of  Cowes,  Isle  of  Wight,  died  in  1754, 
aged  108. 

"  She  lived  upon  biscuit  and  apples,  with  milk  and 
water,  the  last  sixty  years  of  her  life." 

Ann  Maynard,  of  Finchley,  died  in  1756,  aged  112. 

"  She  lived  with  moderation,  and  took  much  exercise." 

John  Michaelstone  (grandson  of  Thomas  Parr)  died  in 
1763,  aged  127. 

"  He  lived  to  the  above  great  age  by  extreme  temperance." 

Owen  Carollan,  of  Duleck,  county  Meath,  died  in  1764, 
aged  127. 

"  By  temperance  and  hard  labor  he  attained  so  great  an 
age." 

Elizabeth  Macpherson,  lived  in  the  county  of  Caithness, 
died  in  1765,  aged  117^ 

"  Her  diet  was  buttermilk  and  greens;  sne  retained  all 
her  senses  till  within  three  months  of  her  death." 

Mr.  Dobson,  of  Hatfield,  farmer,  died  in  1766,  aged  139. 

"  By  much  exercise  and^  temperate  living  he  preserved 
the  inestimable  blessing  of  health." 

Francis  Confit,  of  Burythorpe,  near  Malton,  Yorkshire, 
died  in  1767,  aged  150. 


186  SUMMARY. 

"  He  was  very  temperate  in  his  living,  and  used  great 
exercise,  which,  together  with  occasionally  eating  a  raw 
egg,  enabled  him  to  attain  such  extraordinary  age." 

Catherine  Noon,  alias  Noony,  lived  near  the  city  of 
Tuam,  in  Ireland,  died  the  same  year,  aged  136. 

"  Was  very  temperate  at  her  meals.  Her  husband  died, 
aged  128." 

Donald  M'Gregor,  a  farmer  in  the  Isle  of  Skye,  died  at 
117. 

"  He  was  temperate^at  his  meals,  and  took  much  exercise." 

Mrs.Keithe,  of  Newnham,  Gloucestershire,  died  in  1772, 
aged  133. 

"  She  lived .  moderately,  and  retained  her  senses  till 
within  fourteen  days  of  her  death." 

Mrs.  Glum,  lived  near  Litchfield,  Staffordshire,  died  in 
1773,  aged  138. 

"  By  frequent  exercise  and  temperate  living  she  attained 
so  great  longevity.  .  .  .  She  resided  in  the  same  house 
103  years." 

Mary  Rogers,  of  Penzance,  Cornwall,  died  in  1779,  aged 
118. 

"  Lived  the  last  sixty  years  on  vegetables." 

Henry  Grosvenor,  of  Inch,  county  Wexford,  a  gentle- 
man of  French  extraction,  surveyor  of  the  coast  of  Black- 
water,  died  in  1780,  aged  115. 

u  He  was  very  sparing  in  his  dietyB,nd  used  much  exercise, 
and  was  an  agreeable,  cheerful  companion  at  one  hun- 
dred, when  he  married  his  last  wife." 

James  Le  Measurer,  of  St.  Jean  Pied  de  Port,  in  Navarre, 
died  in  1784,  aged  118. 


SUMMARY.  187 

"  His  common  food  for  some  years  was  vegetables." 

Cardinal  de  Salis,  Archbishop  of  Seville,  died  in  1785, 
aged  125. 

He  himself  observed:  "I  led  a  sober,  studious,  but  not 
a  lazy  or  sedentary  life.  My  diet  was  sparing,  though 
delicate;  my  liquors  the  best  wines  of  Xeres  and  La  Man- 
cha,  of  which  I  never  exceeded  a  pint  at  any  meal,  except 
in  cold  weather,  when  I  allowed  myself  one-third  more." 

John  Wilson,  of  Worling worth,  Sussex,  died  in  1782, 
aged  116. 

"  For  the  last  forty  years  of  his  life  his  suppers  were 
almost  uniformly  made  out  of  roasted  turnips;  to  which 
vegetable,  thus  prepared,  he  always  ascribed  peculiar  san- 
itary virtues." 

Bernard  le  Borier  de  Fontanelle,  of  Rouen,  France,  died 
in  1757,  aged  100.  He  was  a  man  of  great  talent,  was 
Dean  of  the  French  Academy,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  London  and  of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Berlin. 

"  Till  upwards  of  ninety  he  does  not  appear  to  have  ex- 
perienced any  of  the  maladies  usually  attendant  upon  old 
age.  After  this  time  he  was  subject  to  a  periodical  attack 
of  fever  in  the  spring,  when  he  used  to  say,  l  If  I  can  only 
hold  out  till  strawberries  come  in  I  shall  get  well.'  He 
always  attributed  his  longevity  to  a  good  course  of  straw- 
berry eating  every  season." 

Petratsch  Zartan  died  in  1724,  aged  185  years.  He  was 
born  in  1537,  at  Kofroek,  a  village  three  miles  from 
Temeswaer,  in  Hungary,  where  he  lived  180  years. 

14  Being  a  member  of  the  Greek  Church,  the  old  man 
was  a  strict  observer  of  the  numerous  fasts  established  by 


188  SUMMARY. 

its  ritual,  and  was  at  all  times  very  abstemious  in  his  diet, 
save  that  once  a  day,  with  the  milk  and  leaven  cakes 
which  constituted  his  sole  food,  he  took  a  good-sized  glass 
of  brandy." 

Galen,  a  physician  of  Pergamus,  died  about  A.  D.  270, 
aged  140. 

He  himself  informs  us  that  he  always  ate  and  drank 
sparingly,  irrespective  of  his  appetite,  and,  although  of 
delicate  constitution,  he  attributed  his  longevity  to  his 
temperance. 

William  Mead,  M.  D.  (possibly  grandfather  of  the  cel- 
ebrated Dr.  Mead),  died  at  Ware,  Herts,  in  1652,  aged  148. 

"  He  was  distinguished  for  his  great  temperance  and 
regular  habits  of  life." 

Mary  Meigan,  of  Donaghmore,  Ireland,  died  in  1813, 
aged  129. 

"  During  the  last  thirty  years  of  her  life  she  lived  ap- 
parently in  the  greatest  penury  and  distress,  scarcely 
affording  herself  the  means  necessary  for  the  keeping  together 
of  soul  and  body"  She,  however,  saved  £1,600. 

Bridget  Devine,  of  Alean  street,  Manchester,  died  in 
1845,  aged  147. 

Her  husband  was  a  hand-loom  weaver,  and  died  about 
twenty  years  before  her.  They  were  very  poor,  and  after 
her  husband's  decease  she  was  supported  chiefly  from  the 
parochial  funds. 

Ephraim  Pratt  was  living  at  Shaftesbury,  U.  S.,  in  1803, 
aged  116. 

The  Rev.  T.  Dwight  states  that  this  man  was  born  at 
Sudbury,  Mass.,  in  1687,  and  that  throughout  his  life  he 


SUMMARY.  189 

had  been  very  temperate,  both  in  diet  and  habits.  His  gen- 
eral drink  was  cider;  he  was  accustomed  to  take  animal 
food,  but  in  less  quantity  than  most  persons  around  him. 
Milk  was  also  a  common  article  of  his  diet. 

Jonathan  Hartop,  of  the  village  of  Aldoborough,  near 
Boroughbridge,  Yorkshire,  died  in  1790,  aged  138. 

"  He  ate  but  little,  and  his  only  beverage  was  milk." 

Anne  Froste,  of  West  Raisin,  Lincolnshire,  died  in  1722, 
aged  111. 

"Married  her  last  husband  in  her  ninety -third  year. 
.  .  .  For  many  years  past  she  had  lived  on  milk  and  tea 
diet:1 

Mrs.  Thomson,  lived  near  Dublin,  died  in  1796,  aged 
135. 

"  She  was  very  active;  and  by  a  regular  mode  of  living, 
together  with  much  exercise,  attained  so  great  age." 

Baron  Baravicio  de  Capellis,  died  in  1770,  at  Meran,  in 
Tyrol,  aged  104. 

"His  usual  food  was  eggs;  he  never  tasted  boiled  flesh; 
he  sometimes  ate  a  little  roasted,  but  always  in  very  small 
quantity;  and  he  drank  abundance  of  tea  with  rosa-solis 
and  sugar  candy." 

Charles  Macklin,  of  James  street,  Covent  Garden,  an 
eminent  dramatic  writer,  and  comedian  of  Covent  Garden 
Theater,  the  veteran  father  of  the  stage,  died  in  1797,  aged 
107.  In  the  former  part  of  his  life  he  lived  intemperately ; 
subsequent  thereto  he  determined  to  proceed  by  rule, 
which  he  scrupulously  observed. 

"  He  was  moderate  at  his  meals,  and  ate  fish,  flesh,  etc., 
till  the  age  of  seventy;  when  finding  tea  did  not  agree 


190  SUMMARY. 

with  him,  he  substituted  milk,  with  a  little  bread  boiled 
in  it,  sweetened  with  brown  sugar.  .  .  .  For  the  last  forty 
years  his  principal  beverage  was  white  wine  and  water, 
pretty  sweet.  ...  He  strictly  observed  the  dictates  of 
nature,  ate  when  hungry,  drank  when  thirsty,  and  slept 
when  sleepy." — Vide  Memoirs  of  his  life. 

William  Thompson,  of  North  Keyme,  Lincolnshire, 
lived  to  108. 

"  He  smoked  two  pipes  and  drank  some  ale  on  the  day 
of  his  death." 

William  Riddell,  of  Selkirk,  in  Scotland,  died  in  1718, 
aged  116. 

This  man  was  "remarkable  for  his  love  of  brandy, 
which  he  drank  in  very  large  quantities.  ...  He  was  not 
a  drunkard  (habitual),  but  he  had  frequent  paroxysms  of 
drinking  which  continued  several  successive  days.  For 
the  last  two  years  of  his  life  his  chief  subsistence  was  a 
little  bread  infused  in  spirits  and  ale." 

Pascal  Seria,  of  Valencia,  died  at  111. 

"  Frequently  smoked  tobacco." 

Richard  Brown,  of  Peterchurch,  Hereford,  died  in  1794, 
aged  108. 

"  In  the  instance  of  this  old  man,  the  assertion  that 
smoking  tobacco  is  prejudicial  to  health  is  completely 
refuted,  as  he  was  seldom  seen  without  a  pipe  in  his 
mouth,  and  took  his  last  whiff  a  few  hours  before  his 
death." 

John  Saunders,  of  Stratford,  died  in  1798,  aged  106. 

u  He  would  walk  to  the  Old  Castle  House  to  drink  a 
cup  of  ale  and  smoke  his  pipe." 


SUMMARY.  191 

John  de  la  Somet,  of  Virginia,  died  in  1767,  aged  130. 

"  He  was  a  great  smoker  of  tobacco,  which,  agreeing 
with  his  constitution,  may  not  improbably  be  reckoned 
the  cause  of  his  uninterrupted  health  and  longevity.'7 

Joseph  Creole  died  in  Caledonia,  a  little  town  of  Wis- 
consin, on  January  27,  1866,  aged  142. 

"  He  was  an  inveterate  smoker." 

"We  do  not  advise  either  drinking  or  smoking  as  a 
<means  of  prolonging  life,  but  still  there  is  a  philosophy 
noticed  in  the  cases  before  us.  Both  drinking  and  smok- 
ing take  away  the  appetite;  less  food  is  eaten,  therefore 
a  less  amount  of  earthy  salts  are  taken  into  the  system, 
and  the  cause  of  old  age  is  delayed  in  its  results;  still  suf- 
ficient food  is  taken  to  support  life,  and  great  age  follows." 

"  Total  abstainers  must  not  forget  that  alcohol  is  formed 
in  their  own  bodies,  and,  as  Dr.  Richardson  says,  "  No 
man  can  be,  in  the  strict  scientific  sense,  a  non-alcoholic, 
inasmuch  as,  'will  he,  nill  he,'  he  brews  in  his  own  econ- 
omy 'a  wee  drap.'  It  is  an  innocent  brew,  certainly;  but 
it  is  brewed,  and  the  most  ardent  abstainer  must  excuse 
it  The  fault,  if  it  be  one,  rests  with  Nature,  who,  accord- 
ing to  our  poor  estimate,  is  no  more  faultless  than  the  rest 
of  her  sex." 

Alcohol  in  excess  is  injurious  to  health,  especially  to 
the  mental  capabilities — the  reasons  of  which  do  not 
admit  of  argument.  But  there  is  no  evidence  to  show 
that  alcohol  in  moderation,  and  judiciously  used,  is  detri- 
mental to  health. 

Tobacco  affects  the  brain,  the  heart,  circulation,  and 
temperature.  In  excess  it  is  therefore  injurious.  Tobacco 


192  SUMMARY. 

is,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  disinfectant;  it  mitigates  the 
pangs  of  hunger  and  soothes  depression.  How  often  it 
calms  the  temper!  How  many  cross  words  are  prevented 
in  domestic  life  by  the  moderate  use  of  tobacco! 

Louisa  Truxo,  a  negress,  was  stated  to  be  living  in 
June,  1780,  at  Cordova,  in  the  Tucuman,  South  America, 
aged  175. 

The  council  of  the  city  took  every  means  to  verify  the 
authenticity  of  this  statement: 

"  On  examination  of  the  woman,  it  appeared  that  she 
perfectly  remembered  having  seen  the  prelate  Fernando 
Truxo,  her  first  master,  who  died  in  the  year  1614;  and 
that  a  year  before  his  death  he  gave  her,  together  with 
other  property,  towards  a  fund  for  founding  the  university 
of  that  place.  As  no  registers  of  baptism  existed  so  long 
back,  care  was  taken  to  collect  every  circumstance  that 
could  be  brought  forward  in  corroboration  of  the  woman's 
statements.  One  of  these  proofs  was  the  deposition  of 
another  female  negro,  named  Manuela,  who  was  known  to 
be  120  years  old,  and  she  declared  that,  when  she  was 
quite  a  child  she  remembered  that  Louisa  Truxo  was  then 
an  elderly  woman." 

Thomas  Cam,  according  to  the  parish  register  of  the 
church  of  St.  Leonard,  Shoreditch,  died  January  28, 1588, 
aged  207  years. 

He  is  stated  "  to  have  been  born  in  the  reign  of  Richard 
II,  A.  r>.  1381,  and  lived  in  the  reigns  of  twelve  kings  and 
queens  of  England." 

The  Petersburg  Gazette  published  in  1812  an  instance 
of  a  man  in  the  diocese  of  Ekaterinoslau  having  attained 
an  age  of  more  than  200  years. 


SUMMARY.  193 

Dr.  Mussey,  formerly  a  professor  of  anatomy  and  sur- 
gery at  Dartmouth  college,  says  that  John  Gilley,  born  in 
the  county  of  Cork,  Ireland,  1690,  died  at  Augusta,  Maine, 
July,  1813,  aged  123.  "I  saw  him/'  says  Dr.  Mussey, 
"  after  sunset  of  a  cold  evening  in  December,  at  the  age 
of  about  118.  At  that  time  he  took  the  whole  care  of  the 
cattle  at  his  barn,  and  cut  all  the  wood  for  the  fire  at  his 
liouse.  He  lived  a  bachelor  till  he  was  78,  when  he  was 
married  to  a  girl  of  18.  They  had  eight  children  who  had 
gone  out  into  the  world  to  seek  their  fortune,  leaving  the 
old  folks  to  take  care  of  the  homestead." 

Nina  Zahny  near  Berlin,  died  at  the  age  of  141,  having 
never  tasted  meat  in  her  life,  nor  used  beer. 

John  Rovin  and  his  wife,  of  Temesvar,  Hungary,  died 
1741,  he  in  his  172d  year,  she  in  her  164th,  having  lived 
together,  man  and  wife,  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  years. 
He  was  married  at  the  age  of  25  and  his  wife  at  17. 

The  Hon.  Mrs.  Watkins,  of  Glamorganshire,  visited 
London  at  the  age  of  110,  the  last  year  of  her  life,  to  wit- 
ness one  of  the  performances  of  Mrs.  Siddons.  She 
ascended  the  many  flights  of  steps  which  lead  to  the 
whispering  dome  of  St.  Paul's. 

Lord  Bacon  says  the  Countess  of  Desmond,  who  lived 
to  148,  renewed  her  teeth  once  or  twice. 

The  Dublin  Freeman  of  July  29,  1854,  stated  that  Owen 
Duffy,  of  Monaghan  county,  was  then  alive,  aged  122 
years.  Having  lost  his  second  wife  when  he  was  116,  he 
married  a  third,  a  young  woman,  by  whom  he  had  a  son 
and  a  daughter.  At  this  time  his  youngest  son  was  two 
years  old,  while  his  eldest  was  ninety. 

13 


194  SUMMARY. 

John  Rousey,  Esq.,  of  the  island  of  Distey,  in  Scotland, 
died  in  1738,  aged  137. 

"He  had  a  son  at  one  hundred  years  of  age^who  in-< 
herited  his  estate." 

John  Riva,  of  Venice,  died  at  116. 

"  He  always  chewed  citron-bark,  and  had  a  child ~after 
he  was  100.'' 

Margaret  Krasiona,  of  the  village  of  Koninia,  in  Poland. 
When  ninety-four  years  of  age,  she  married  her. third 
husband,  who  was  tben  105. 

"  They  lived  together  fourteen  years,  and  had  two  boys 
and  one  girl.  This  is  certified  in  the  parish  registers  of 
the  village  of  Ciwousin,  district  of  Stensick,  in  the  pala- 
tine of  Seudomir." 

Thomas  Parr,  a  native  of  Shropshire,  died  in  1635,  aged 
152.  He  married  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight,  "seeming  no 
older  than  many  at  forty." 

He  was  brought  to  London  by  Thomas,  then  Earl  of 
Arundel,  to  see  Charles  I,  "  when  he  fed  high,  drank  plen- 
tifully of  wines,  by  which  his  body  was  overcharged,  his 
lungs  obstructed,  and  the  habit  of  the  whole  body  quite 
disordered;  in  consequence,  there  could  not  be  but  speedy 
dissolution.  If  he  had  not  changed  his  diet  he  might 
have  lived  many  years  longer." 

On  his  body  being  opened  by  Dr.  Harvey,  it  was  found 
to  be  in  a  most  perfect  state.  "  The  heart  was  thick, 
fibrous  and  fat;  his  cartilages  were  not  even  ossified  as  is  the 
case  in  all  old  people"  and  the  only  cause  to  which  death 
could  be  attributed  was  "  a  mere  plethora,  brought  on  by 
more  luxurious  living  in  London  than  he  had  been  accus- 


SUMMARY.  195 

tomed  to  in  his  native  country,  where  his  food  was  plain 
and  homely." 

"  Constantinople  is  a  tolerably  ancient  city,  as  Euro- 
pean capitals  go,  but,  old  as  it  is,  it  never  entertained 
within  its  gates  since  the  date  of  its  foundation  a  more 
remarkable  visitor  than  the  Circassian  chieftain,  Hod 
Bey,  who  recently  arrived  in  Stamboul  for  the  purpose 
of  paying  homage  in  person  to  his  liege  lord  and 
hereditary  commander,  the  Padishah.  This  warrior  has 
attained  an  age  which  justifies  him  in  regarding  the  ven- 
erable German  emperor  as  a  mere  stripling.  He  was  born 
in  1762,  and  entered  the  Turkish  military  service  in  the 
year  1777,  under  the  reign  of  Abdul  Hamid  I.  Eight 
successive  sultans  have  known  Hod  Bey  as  one  of  the 
most  faithful  and  valiant  officers  of  the  Ottoman  army,  to 
which  he  still  belongs  after  an  active  military  career  of 
105  years.  He  has  fought  in  sixty-five  pitched  battles 
and  innumerable  skirmishes,  received  three  and  twenty 
wounds,  and  earned  over  and  over  again  every  war  deco- 
ration in  the  gift  of  the  Grand  Seignior.  Although  well 
advanced  in  his  hundred  and  twentieth  year,  he  is  strong 
and  hearty,  retains  the  use  of  all  his  faculties,  and  enjoys 
an  excellent  appetite.  The  present  sultan  has  shown 
him  every  attention  that  a  sovereign  can  offer  to  a  subject. 
No  honor  can  be  too  great,  no  distinction  too  conspicuous, 
for  a  stanch  old  soldier  who  has  fought  for  the  Crescent 
throughout  considerably  more  than  a  century." — Daily 
Telegraph,  Sept.  19,  1882. 

Miguel  Solis,  of  Bogota,  San  Salvador,  who  is  supposed 
to  be  at  least  180.  At  a  congress  of  physicians,  held  at 


196  SUMMARY. 

Bogota,  Dr.  Louis  Hernandez  read  a  report  of  his  visit  to 
this  locally  famous  man,  a  country  publican  and  farmer: 

"We  are  told  that  he  only  confesses  to  this  age  (180 
years);  but  his  neighbors,  who  must  be  better  able  to 
judge,  affirm  that  he  is  considerably  older  than  he  says. 
He  is  a  half-breed,  named  Miguel  Solis,  and  his  existence 
is  testified  to  by  Dr.  Hernandez,  who  was  assured  that 
when  one  of  the  l  oldest  inhabitants'  was  a  child  this  man 
was  recognized  as  a  centenarian.  His  signature,  in  1712, 
is  said  to  have  been  discovered  among  those  of  persons 
who  assisted  in  the  construction  of  a  certain  convent 
(Franciscan  convent  at  San  Sebastian).  Dr.  Hernandez 
found  this  wonderful  individual  working  in  his  garden. 
His  skin  was  like  parchment;  his  hair  as  white  as  snow, 
and  covering  his  head  like  a  turban.  He  attributed  his 
long  life  to  his  careful  habits;  eating  only  once  a  day,  for 
half  an  hour,  because  he  believed  that  more  food  than 
could  be  eaten  in  half  an  hour  could  not  be  digested  in 
twenty-four  hours.  He  had  been  accustomed  to  fast  on 
the  first  and  fifteenth  of  every  month,  drinking  on  those 
days  as  miwh  water  as  possible.  He  chose  the  most  nour- 
ishing foods,  and  took  all  things  cold." — Lancet,  Sept.  7, 
1878. 

From  this  and  other  sources  we  gather  the  following 
habits  of  this  man: 

1.  He  eats  but  once  a  day,  and  only  for  half  an  hour. 

2.  He  eats  meat  but  twice  a  month;  from  which  we 
may  justly  infer  that  he  is  to  a  certain  extent  abstemious 
in  his  daily  meal. 

3.  He  drinks  large  quantities  of  water. 


SUMMARY 

4.  He  fasts  two  whole  days  every  month. 

From  these  habits  it  follows  that,  compared  with  the 
majority  of  mankind,  he  eats  little,  yet  enough  to  support 
life;  he  therefore  takes  into  his  system  a  small  amount  of 
earthy  compounds,  which  therefore  take  a  longer  period 
to  accumulate,  and  produce  the  symptoms  of  decrepitude 
and  old  age  at  a  far  later  period  than  they  occur  in  most 
individuals  who  live  upon  an  ordinary  quantity  of  food, 
whose  bodies  become  rigid,  decrepit,  and  ossified,  we  will 
say,  at  about  "  three-score  years  and  ten."  Farther,  that 
he  drinks  large  quantities  of  water,  which  if  not  un- 
usually hard,  will  tend  to  dissolve  and  remove  those 
earthy  compounds  which  are  not  the  effect  but  the  cause 
of  old  age.  We  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  make 
further  inquiries  concerning  the  diet  and  habits  of  this 
man.  Our  information  is  derived  from  numerous  periodi- 
cals, and  we  only  arrive  at  the  above  conclusions  because 
we  are  convinced,  from  ascertained  facts  and  experi- 
ments, that  man  may  by  diet  alone  attain  the  age  which 
Miguel  Solis  is  supposed  to  be. 

"  Henry  Jenkins  lived  to  the  extraordinary  age  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-nine  years.  He  was  born  on  the  17th 
of  May,  1500,  at  Ellerton,  in  Yorkshire,  and  died  in  1670. 
He  assisted  his  father  in  his  early  years  as  a  fruit-grower 
and  market  gardener.  All  his  family  were  remarkable 
for  longevity.  An  only  sister  of  his  died  at  the  age  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five,  and  his  grandmother  lived 
to  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  years.  Old 
Jenkins  was  always  a  great  admirer  of  nature,  and  ex- 
tremely fond  of  fruits,  flowers,  and  herbs.  It  was  his  daily 


198  SUMMARY 

custom  to  rise  very  early,  with  the  song  of  earliest  birds, 
and  wander  through  the  woods  or  over  hill  and  meadow 
at  peep  of  day  in  quest  of  divers  medicinal  herbs,  the 
study  of  which  he  was  so  fond  of. 

"  With  regard  to  the  diet  of  this  wonderful  old  man,  it 
was  always  simple,  consisting  mostly  of  cold  meat  and 
salads,  of  which  he  partook,  with  water  for  his  drink,  in 
moderate  supplies.  It  was  in  the  year  1524,  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  that  the  hop  plant  was  introduced 
into  England  from  Flanders,  and  cultivated  for  the  prep- 
aration of  beer,  which  Jenkins,  being  a  great  advocate  for 
bitters,  used  for  that  purpose;  and  he  never  found  a  mod- 
erate portion  of  that  beverage,  taken  once  a  day,  at  all 
to  disagree  with  him,  or  hurt  him.  He  partook  of  light 
suppers,  frequently  walking  out  in  his  garden  afterward 
for  a  short  time  to  promote  digestion.  Water  was,  how- 
ever, his  favorite  beverage,  and  he  usually  drank  nearly 
half  a  pint  of  it  every  morning  when  he  first  arose.  Be- 
sides abstemiousness  in  the  article  of  food,  his  general 
habits  were  regular  and  sober.  Following  the  directions 
of  his  mother,  he  always  continued  the  use  of  flannel  and 
warm  clothing,  which  had  been  commenced  in  infancy. 
He  was  robust  and  healthy  to  old  age — a  hearty,  respect- 
able, good-looking  old  man,  who  never  knew  what  real 
illness  was  until  a  year  or  two  before  his  death.  He 
warded  off  the  first  attacks  of  disease  by  resorting,  at  the 
first  appearance  of  the  enemy,  to  defensive  or  preventive 
measures,  never  waiting  to  parley  with  the  insidious  foe; 
and  he  always  found  his  plan  successful." 

In  the  "  Philosophical  Transactions"  of  1696,  Sir  Tan- 


SUMMARY.  199 

cred  Robinson  states:  "  This  Henry  Jenkins,  in  the  last 
century  of  his  life,  was  a  fisherman.  When  90  years  of 
age  a  child  was  born  to  him.  He  was  able  to  swim  across 
rapid  rivers  after  he  was  100.  He  remembered  the  battle 
of  Flodden  Field,  in  1513.  The  registers  of  chancery  and 
other  courts  prove  that  he  gave  evidence,  and  had  an 
oath  administered  to  him  140  years  before  his  death." 

"  When  Jenkins  was  near  his  160th  year,  King  Charles 
II.,  being  informed  of  his  astonishing  longevity,  expressed 
a  desire  to  see  him  in  London,  and  sent  a  carriage  pur- 
posely to  convey  him  thither.  He  preferred,  however,  to 
go  on  foot,  and  actually  walked  to  the  metropolis  in  easy 
stages — a  distance  of  two  hundred  miles.  On  his  arrival 
in  London,  the  hoary  patriarch  was  introduced  to  his 
majesty.  The  king  held  a  long  conversation  with  him, 
and  made  many  inquiries  as  to  his  mode  of  living;  but 
nothing  particular  being  observable  in  that,  inquired  by 
what  means  he  contrived  to  live  so  much  longer  than 
other  people.  To  this  he  replied  that  temperance  and 
sobriety  of  living  had  been  the  means,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  of  lengthening  his  days  beyond  the  usual  limit. 
The  king,  who  was  fond  of  dissipation  and  luxury,  seemed 
not  much  pleased  with  some  of  Jenkins'  homely  maxims, 
and  dismissed  him;  but  allowed  him  a  comfortable  pen- 
sion, which  he  enjoyed  the  remainder  of  his  life." 

The  Boston  Herald  recently  printed  an  account  of  the 
death  of  a  man  named  Jose  Cortez  at  the  age  of  193  years, 
near  the  city  of  Morelia,  in  Mexico.  The  fact  is  said  to  be 
thoroughly  substantiated  by  the  records  of  the  parish  in 
which  the  man  lived. 


200  SUMMARY. 

A  wonderful  anniversary,  the  one  hundredth,  of  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jean  Szathmary,  is  reported  from 
Hungary.  The  marriage  of  this  aged  pair  is  duly  and 
officially  recorded  as  having  taken  place  in  May,  1793,  at 
which  time,  according  to  the  record,  they  were  of  mar- 
riageable age. 

As  in  Hungary,  at  that  time,  a  bridegroom  must  have 
reached  the  age  of  20  and  a  bride  that  of  15,  the  pair  must 
now  be  at  least  120  and  115  years  old.  The  one  hundredth 
anniversary  was  celebrated  at  the  town  of  Zsombolyi,  in 
the  Banat,  which  has  for  a  long  time  allowed  the  vener- 
able couple  a  pension  in  recognition  of  their  great  age  and 
fidelity  to  each  other. —  Youth's  Companion. 

A  census  of  centenarians  recently  taken  in  France  gives 
213  persons  of  100  years  or  over,  147  of  them  women  and 
66  men.  The  oldest  was  a  woman  who  had  just  died  at 
150  in  a  village  of  the  department  of  Haute  Garonne. 
Nearly  all  of  the  centenarians  belonged  to  the  lowest  ranks 
in  life. 

On  New  Year's  day  Bazyl  la  Chappelle,  a  half-breed 
Kaskaskia  Indian,  well  known  to  every  one  in  that  section 
as  "  Old  Bazyl,"  was  buried  from  his  home  near  Prairie  du 
Rocher. 

He  was  the  son  of  Langlois  la  Chappelle,  a  French  offi- 
cer stationed  at  Fort  Chartres.  In  1765  his  father  married 
a  Kaskaskia  Indian  maiden  who  had  become  a  Christian, 
and  left  her  tribe  to  become  his  wife.  During  the  year  of 
their  marriage  Fort  Chartres  was  captured  by  an  English 
regiment  under  Colonel  Gawry,  and  the  French  garrison 
of  twenty-one  men  fled  to  Kaskaskia,  and  with  them  went 
La  Chappelle  and  his  young  Indian  bride. 


SUMMARY.  201 

The  French  possessions  east  of  the  Mississippi  river  were 
ceded  to  Great  Britain  the  same  year  La  Chappelle  and 
his  wife  left  Kaskaskia  for  Fort  Genevieve,  where  Bazyl 
was  born  on  August  16,  1770.  After  living  in  St.  Gene- 
vieve two  years  Bazyl's  mother  fled  from  her  husband  and 
civilization  to  rejoin  her  tribe,  and  La  Chappelle,  heart- 
broken, concluded  to  return  to  Fort  Chartres. 

Bazyl's  father  died  at  Fort  Chartres  in  1774,  and  is  bur- 
ied  in  the  St.  Philippe  cemetery,  near  the  old  fort.  The 
boy  had  become  a  favorite  with  the  English  soldiers,  and 
was  adopted  by  one  of  the  officers.  In  1776  an  overflow 
of  the  Mississippi  cut  away  the  southeast  angle  of  the  fort, 
and  the  garrison  was  removed  to  Fort  Gaze,  opposite  Kas- 
kaskia, where  Bazyl  was  cared  for  by  the  English  until 
the  capture  of  the  settlement  by  a  company  of  rangers 
under  Captain  Clark  in  1779,  when  Father  Brobisquet,  a 
Catholic  priest,  took  the  boy  and  cared  for  him. 

When  young  La  Chappelle  was  13  years  of  age  a  band 
of  Kaskaskia  Indians  came  to  the  village  to  barter  furs, 
and  among  them  was  Bazyl's  mother.  Learning  that  her 
son  was  still  alive,  she  went  to  him  and  induced  him  to 
leave  his  home  and  go  with  her.  The  lad  soon  forgot  his 
religious  training,  and  liking  the  wild  life  of  his  ancestors, 
remained  with  the  tribe  until  the  death  of  his  mother, 
which  occurred  in  1789.  He  then  returned  to  Kaskaskia 
and  became  a  trapper  and  guide  in  the  employ  of  an  In- 
dian trader  named  Menard.  He  conducted  trading  parties 
on  expeditions  among  the  Indians. 

After  serving  Menard  for  many  years  he  bought  a  small 
farm  between  Kaskaskia  and  Prairie  du  Rocher,  where  he 


202  SUMMARY. 

lived  until  his  death.  He  was  a  light  eater,  never  drank 
intoxicants,  but  was  a  great  smoker,  and  was  continually 
puffing  at  an  old  clay  pipe. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  he  had  five  teeth  and  his  hair 
had  some  of  Hs  original  color.  He  was  buried  beside  his 
father  in  the  old  St.  Philippe  churchyard,  near  the  ruins 
of  Fort  Chartres.  His  age  is  positively  known  to  be  125, 
as  the  date  of  his  birth  has  been  found  in  the  French 
records  at  St.  Genevieve. — S.  F.  Examiner,  January,  1896. 

McDoNOUGH,  Ga.,  January  26. — Hiram  Lester  is  dead 
in  the  Henry  County  poorhouse,  at  the  age  of  129.  He 
was  born  in  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  eight  years  before  the  birth  of 
the  Republic.  There  is  no  question  as  to  his  great  age,  as 
he  leaves  a  son  92  years  old,  who  is  an  inmate  of  the  same 
institution,  and  a  daughter  who  lives  in  Heard  County,  and 
is  95  years  old. 

"  Uncle  Hiram,"  as  he  was  familiarly  known,  came 
from  a  long-lived  ancestry.  His  father  lived  to  be  100 
and  his  grandfather  to  be  115.  The  old  man  claimed  to 
have  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  George  Washington  for 
three  days,  and  spoke  fluently  on  the  subject  of  the  official 
acts  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Jay.  In  1881  he  was 
obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  poorhouse.  In  1891  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Mary  Moseley,  aged  81,  housekeeper  of 
the  poorhouse. — S.  F.  Examiner,  January,  1896. 

The  oldest  citizen  of  Iowa  is  Christian  Coonrad,  aged 
116  years.  In  the  matter  of  flesh  he  is  little  better  than 
a  skeleton  veneered  with  tawny  parchment,  and  of  course 
his  step  is  slow,  feeble,  and  unsteady,  his  voice  weak,  and 
his  eyes  dim,  but  he  has  not  lost  his  capacity  for  enjoy- 


SUMMARY.  203 

ment,  and  if  a  kite  goes  up  in  the  township  he  wants  to 
be  there.  Just  now  he  is  husbanding  his  strength  prepar- 
atory to  attending  Delaware  County's  annual  harvest  home 
gathering  at  Spring  Brook,  at  which  his  has  been  a  famil- 
iar figure  for  years. 

Mr.  Coonrad  was  born  in  Cumberland  County,  Pa.,  Sep- 
tember 22,  1780.  He  was  living  on  the  old  homestead,  a 
man  over  thirty,  when  the  war  of  1812  broke  out.  A  cousin 
brought  the  news,  and  Mr.  Coonrad  abandoned  the  farm 
for  the  field  of  arms.  His  company  was  ordered  to  the 
Niagara  frontier,  and  as  a  private  in  the  ranks  he  took 
part  in  Colonel  Miller's  historic  and  successful  charge  on 
Queen stown  Heights.  He  also  participated  in  the  battle 
of  Fort  Erie,  and  witnessed  Commodore  Perry's  famous 
victory  on  Lake  Erie. 

Upon  the  close  of  the  war  Mr.  Coonrad  returned  to  the 
farm,  where  he  remained  until  the  opening  of  the  Erie 
canal,  upon  which  he  operated  aline  boat  for  seven  years. 
He  also  navigated  the  Susquehanna  for  some  years,  and 
in  1845  settled  in  McHenry  County,  111.  In  1860  he  re- 
moved to  his  present  farm  in  Delaware  County.  His  hab- 
itation is  a  log  house  with  two  rooms,  and  his  companion 
is  his  wife,  who,  at  the  age  of  over  eighty,  still  performs 
the  duties  of  housekeeper,  and  is  cheerful  as  a  matron  of 
forty.  They  were  married  sixty-two  years  ago,  and  their 
eleven  children,  ranging  in  age  from  thirty  to  fifty-eight 
years,  are  all  living,  besides  forty-two  grandchildren  and 
thirty-four  great-grandchildren. — From  a  recent  issue  of 
the  Chicago  Times-Herald. 


204  SUMMARY. 

December  29,  1895,  the  San  Francisco  Examiner  pub- 
lished photographs,  with  a  lengthy  description  of  the  lives, 
of  five  centenarians  now  living  in  California,  from  which 
the  following  data  are  taken. 

Senora  Isabella  Villa  of  Merced  was  born  in  Tapulpa, 
Mexico,  in  March,  1795. 

The  senora  is  more  spry  than  many  ladies  of  fifty.  She 
has  smoked  cigarettes  constantly  since  she  was  ten  years 
of  age.  She  never  takes  spirituous  liquors  save  on  rare 
occasions. 

Senora  Villa's  cigarette  smoking  habit,  coupled  with 
her  extraordinary  vitality,  are  things  to  make  all  hygienic 
reformers  wonder.  For  ninety  years  or  so  the  senora  has 
been  smoking  and  inhaling  the  fragrant  weed,  and  even 
now,  at  over  five  score,  is  remarkably  active,  mentally 
and  physically. 

Doubtless  one  reason  for  the  apparently  non-injurious 
effects  upon  her  of  the  smoke-inhaling  habit  is  the  qual- 
ity of  tobacco  used.  Like  all  of  her  race,  she  scorns  the 
ready-made  " coffin-nail  cigarette,"  but  rolls  her  own  to- 
bacco in  the  brownish-yellow  straw  paper  such  as  all 
Mexicans  use.  She  rolls  her  cigarettes  with  extreme  ra- 
pidity, and  takes  even  now  as  much  comfort  with  her 
frequent  smokes  as  ever  any  man  does  with  the  choicest 
cigar. 

Without  her  cigarettes  she  is  nervous  and  restless,  but 
with  them  she  is  lulled  to  rest  and  repose. 

Mrs.  Arthur  of  Stockton  was  born  January,  1787,  on  a 
plantation  in  Knox  County,  Kentucky.  She  has  given 
birth  to  seventeen  children.  At  present  she  has  two  sons, 


SUMMARY.  205 

eight  grandchildren,  one  great  grandchild,  and  one  great- 
great-grandchild.  Soon  after  the  birth  of  the  only  mem- 
ber of  the  fifth  generation  in  1882,  a  picture  of  the  five 
generations  was  taken.  Mrs.  Arthur  reads  without  glasses. 
She  has  always  been  a  hard  worker  and  has  never  known 
sickness. 

The  oldest  person  in  the  West,  according  to  all  records 
obtainable,  is  Mrs.  Priscilla  Nelson,  aged  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six,  living  at  Marysville. 

She  was  born  on  a  farm  fifty  miles  north  of  Knoxville, 
Teim.,  and  came  to  California  in  1854.  She  has  given 
birth  to  ten  children;  the  youngest,  aged  43,  resides  with 
her. 

In  a  recent  interview  Mrs.  Nelson  said  that  she  knew 
of  no  particular  habits  of  life  to  which  she  can  attribute 
her  longevity.  She  drinks  coffee  and  tea  and  has  a  splen- 
did appetite.  She  uses  tobacco  unsparingly.  Her  eye- 
sight and  hearing  are  unimpaired,  and  her  voice  shows 
but  a  slight  tremor.  For  her  age  she  is  quite  sprightly. 
She  has  not  attempted  any  work  for  twenty-five  years. 
Vegetables  have  formed  a  large  part  of  her  food  for  many 
years. 

At  the  County  Hospital  near  Colusa  is  Mrs.  Sarah  Davis. 
She  was  born  in  East  Tennessee  in  1790.  She  was  married 
when  a  mere  child,  and  became  the  mother  of  sixteen 
children.  Solomon  Davis,  over  seventy  years  of  age,  an 
inmate  of  the  County  Hospital  of  Yreka,  is  one  of  her  sons. 
He  visited  his  mother  last  fall. 

Notwithstanding  her  old  age,  her  hearing  and  sight  are 
perfect,  but  her  voice  is  not  very  strong. 


206  SUMMARY. 

She  is  as  hearty  an  eater  as  a  young  person,  and  has 
yet  a  fair  set  of  natural  teeth.  Onions  are  a  favorite  dish 
with  her — she  eats  them  three  times  each  day. 

Mrs.  Maria  Foster  was  bom  in  London,  Eng.,  in  1792. 
Her  father  was  General  Houston,  a  British  commander 
who  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

Mrs.  Foster  now  has  two  sons  living.  One,  Edward,  is 
in  business  in  Spain,  and  another,  Thomas,  is  a  London 
barrister. 

Her  appetite  is  wonderfully  good,  and  she  eats  heartily 
of  everything  except  meat,  which  she  never  touches  in 
any  form.  She  is  fond  of  fruits  and  sweets,  and  would 
eat  candy  by  the  boxful  if  she  could  get  it.  She  is  an 
inveterate  smoker; 

It  must  be  obvious  to  the  reader  who  has  carefully 
studied  the  preceding  chapters,  that  under  certain  condi- 
tions of  life  with  health,  it  is  possible  to  hold  in  check 
the  processes  which  involve  age.  This  knowledge  is  of 
recent  date,  hence  consideration  of  the  foregoing  instances, 
where  under  ordinary  conditions  great  age  was  attained, 
suggests  the  possibility  of  greatly  exceeding  even  those 
limits.  The  value  of  this  knowledge,  however,  depends 
entirely  upon  its  application.  The  wish  for  long  life  is 
natural,  and  when  in  good  health  and  circumstances  few 
individuals  desire  it  shortened. 

The  only  certain  means  of  prolonging  life  are  clearly 
explained  herein,  for  age  is  but  a  disease  caused  by  cal- 
careous and  other  deposits  in  the  body.  The  main  source 
from  whence  these  deposits  arise  is  the  water  used  for 
drinking.  If  man  used  only  distilled  water,  either  in  its 


SUMMARY.  207 

pure  form  or  in  fresh  fruits,  which  contain  from  75  per  cent 
to  95  per  cent,  or  in  a  sound  wine,  which  consists  almost 
entirely  of  water  distilled  by  nature,  and  only  in  quanti- 
ties sufficient  to  satisfy  natural  thirst,  the  main  cause  of 
decrepitude  would  cease  to  exist,  and  those  diseases  due  to 
the  formation  of  calculi  in  different  parts  of  the  system 
would  become  of  rare  occurrence.  Every  household  can 
with  little  trouble  and  expense  condense  the  steam  which 
escapes  from  the  boiling  water  in  daily  use,  and  such  dis- 
tilled water  can  be  utilized  not  only  for  drinking  purposes, 
but  in  the  preparation  of  foods  where  water  forms  a  com- 
ponent part.  Those  individuals  who  find  such  means  of 
obtaining  pure  water  difficult  or  inconvenient  can  pur- 
chase the  article  of  the  druggists,  in  five-gallon  quantities 
generally  at  10  cents  per  gallon. 

Free  phosphorus,  by  combining  with  oxygen  existing  in 
the  blood,  prevents  excessive  oxidation  or  waste  of  the  sys- 
tem. Its  action  therefore  in  partially  arresting  this  never- 
ceasing  action  of  atmospheric  oxygen,  operates  in  reduc- 
ing the  amount  of  food  required  to  support  life.  It  should 
be  used  only  in  the  following  manner:  The  Official  Elixir 
of  Phosphorus  may  be  obtained  of  all  druggists  with  a 
strength  of  from  one-fiftieth  to  one-hundredth  of  a  grain 
per  fluidrachm  (teaspoonful).  This  should  be  taken:  A 
teaspoonful  three  times  a  day.  It  is  not  wise  to  use  this 
preparation  steadily.  If  used  for  two  weeks  it  should  be 
discontinued  for  the  next  week  or  two. 

The  Standard  Dilute  Phosphoric  Acid  can  also  be  ob- 
tained of  all  druggists,  and  may  be  used  continuously  in 
doses  of  from  ten  to  twenty  drops,  well  diluted  with  dis- 


208  SUMMARY 

tilled  water,  from  one  to  three  times  a  day.  Its  action  is 
to  prevent  and  even  remove  earthy  compounds,  one  of  the 
causes  of  old  age. 

Avoid  table  salt.  It  contains  a  large  amount  of  calca- 
reous matter.  There  is  no  foundation  for  the  opinion 
that  salt  is  essential  to  the  general  functions  of  the  body. 
Where  a  craving  for  this  article  exists,  it  will  be  found 
that  the  diet  is  responsible.  Plant-eating  animals  require 
more  salt  than  the  carnivora.  Some  of  them  will  travel 
long  distances  to  obtain  it,  which  is  never  the  case  with 
flesh-eaters.  Dr.  Burge,  by  repeated  experiments,  has 
proved  that  where  the  diet  contains  potash,  salt  is  required, 
as  potash  withdraws  from  the  body  chloride  of  sodium, 
or  its  oxide,  and  soda,  both  constituents  of  common  salt. 
Liebig  states  that  there  seems  to  be  a  popular  instinct  to 
add  salt  to  starch  foods,  and  these  are  the  very  ones  which 
contain  the  most  potash.  Hence,  the  use  of  starch  neces- 
sitates the  use  of  salt,  and  in  proportion  as  such  food  is 
eliminated  from  the  diet  will  the  craving  for  salt  cease. 

The  chapter  on  "  What  to  Eat,"  is  sufficiently  explana- 
tory except  as  to  the  quantity,  which  after  all  depends  to 
a  great  extent  on  structural  development  and  personal 
peculiarities.  To  every  individual  must  be  left  the  de- 
cision of  this  question.  It  may,  however,  be  said  that  a 
sufficient  interest  in  the  subject  suggests  a  student  of 
hygiene,  and  the  best  evidence  of  thorough  study  and 
wise  practice  will  be  in  the  result  attained,  which  can  prove 
only  beneficial.  It  may  be  well,  however,  to  refer  those 
who  are  not  inclined. to  what  they  may  erroneously  con- 


SUMMARY.  209 

sider  hardships,  to  an  easy  compromise,  and  to  such  the 
following  quotation  may  prove  of  interest: 

"  Referring  to  the  subject  of  quantity  of  food  required  to 
sustain  life,  we  affirm  that  most  men  eat  more  than  is 
requisite  for  this  purpose— more  than  is  actually  good  for 
them.  Man  does  not  require  four  or  five  meals  a  day;  he 
would  be  in  far  better  health  on  two,  or  at  most  three 
meals  in  the  twenty-four  hours. 

"  Fruits  are  nutritious  in  themselves ;  but  should  they 
not  contain  sufficient  nitrogen  to  satisfy  a  theoretical  ap- 
petite, we  have  shown  that  all  other  elements  are  present, 
and  that  man  may  absorb  the  deficient  nitrogen  from  the 
surrounding  atmosphere,  the  combination  resulting  in 
albumen,  or  protein.  For  this  reason,  together  with  the 
fact  that  they  contain  little  earthy  matter,  fruits  are 
man's  best  diet  if  he  truly  desires  a  long  life;  but  consid- 
ering the  difficulties  attending  a  sudden  change  of  diet, 
and  the  necessity  of  conforming  to  the  rules  and  usages 
of  society,  which  we  do  not  wish  to  usurp  (and  even  did 
we  desire  this,  we  fear  society  would  be  the  victor),  we  are 
induced  to  put  forward  a  few  simple  and  straightforward 
rules,  which  are  founded  upon  observed  facts,  which  are 
not  oppressive  or  tyrannical,  which  would  not  interfere 
with  the  avocations  and  callings  of  man,  and  which  may 
be  readily  carried  out  by  every  one  of  the  community  for 
his  own  individual  benefit,  for  health  and  long  life. 

"As  we  know,  there  are  many  who  could  not  be  per- 
suaded to  make  any  alteration  in  the  articles  of  their  diet, 
whilst  there  are  others  who  might  be  influenced  in  this 
direction,  we  give  a  few  rules  for  both  these  classes. 


210  SUMMARY. 

"  To  those  who  are  not  inclined  to  alter  the  articles  of 
their  diet,  we  say: 

"  1.  Eat  moderately ,  always  remembering  that  you  eat  to 
live — to  give  a  balance  to  the  system. 

"  2.  Take  no  more  than  three  meals  a  day. 

"  3.  Avoid  eating  large  quantities  of  bread,  pastry,  and 
other  farinaceous  foods. 

"  To  those  who  are  willing  to  make  alterations  in  their 
diet,  the  same  rules  will  apply,  but  with  this  difference: 

"Eat  fruits,  if  possible,  at  every  meal,  and  commence 
with  them;  if  the  appetite  is  not  moderately  satisfied, 
finish  with  the  ordinary  articles  of  diet." 

The  remaining  paragraphs  are  mainly  from  De  Lacy 
Evans: 

The  majority  of  mankind  die  unnatural  deaths  from 
disease  or  accident.  Polluted  air  is  productive  of  much 
more  general  injury  than  impure  water.  The  air  of 
rooms  in  which  human  beings  live  or  sleep  ought  to  be  in 
a  constant  state  of  motion,  but  not  sufficient  to  produce 
draughts,  which  are  frequently  the  cause  of  colds,  inflam- 
mation of  the  lungs,  and  other  diseases.  The  common 
idea  that  the  noxious  character  of  confined  air  is  due  to 
a  deficiency  of  oxygen  is  erroneous.  A  alight  deficiency 
of  oxygen,  if  counterbalanced  merely  by  a  similar  increase 
in  the  amount  of  nitrogen,  is  not  injurious  to  man.  But 
those  gases  (chiefly  carbonic  acid)  which  are  produced  in 
close  and  confined  rooms  and  workshops  are  the  imme- 
diate cause,  by  their  poisonous  influence  on  the  blood,  of 
that  stagnating  sub-oxidation  which  gradually  lays  the 
foundation  of  many  wasting  diseases.  The  inhalation  of 


SUMMARY.  211 

carbonic  acid,  even  in  comparatively  small  quantities,  in 
the  atmosphere,  causes  the  white  corpuscles  of  the  blood  to 
enlarge,  and  thus  to  become  less  capable  of  circulation. 

There  is  no  greater  preservative  of  health  than  regular 
exercise.  It  equalizes  the  circulation,  thus  preventing 
congestions,  especially  those  of  the  liver,  which  are  the 
prevailing  characteristics  of  the  present  generation.  The 
circulation  of  the  blood  through  the  arteries  and  capil- 
laries is  one  of  the  means  whereby  the  frame  is  nourished 
and  supported,  and  the  organs  of  digestion  strengthened. 
Thus  sufficient  exercise  will  not  only  improve  the  health, 
spirits  and  physical  power,  but  will  render  such  things  as 
tonics  and  alteratives  unnecessary. 

Nothing  is  more  necessary  to  a  comfortable  and  con- 
genial state  of  existence  than  that  the  body  should  be 
kept,  as  nearly  as  possible,  at  a  uniform  temperature. 
Any  degree  of  cold  which  produces  shivering  cannot  be 
endured  without  injury  to  health.  The  purpose  of  clothing 
is  to  prevent  the  loss  of  bodily  heat  by  radiation.  Wool, 
being  a  better  conductor  of  heat,  is  a  better  substance  for 
clothing  than  silk  or  cotton,  and  the  more  loose  and  easy 
the  fit,  the  more  warmth  will  the  garment  afford,  because 
a  stratum  of  warm  air  is  allowed  to  interpose  between  it 
and  the  body.  Tight  clothing  is  dangerous,  both  by  its 
action  in  arresting  circulation  and  producing  deformity, 
and  by  its  tendency  to  confine  the  movements  of  the  ex- 
ternal limbs,  and  cramp  the  natural  actions  of  the  internal 
organs. 

The  action  of  oxygen  upon  some  of  the  constituents  of 
the  blood  and  tissues  of  the  body  is  one  of  the  sources  of 


212  SUMMARY. 

animal  heat.  The  skin,  by  increase  of  perspiration  and 
its  evaporation,  carries  off  the  excess,  so  that  the  inter- 
nal parts  of  the  body  are  in  health  preserved  at  a  uniform 
temperature  of  about  98.2°.  The  excretory  function  of 
the  skin  is  of  paramount  importance  in  regard  to  health. 
A  diminution  of  the  insensible  perspiration  is  a  charac- 
teristic of  many  diseases  and  a  concomitant  of  most 
fevers.  If  a  man  be  exposed  to  a  cold  temperature  (say 
40°)  his  skin  becomes  almost  insensible,  and  the  vessels 
which  supply  the  perspiration  contract,  and  perspiration 
ceases.  Again,  under  a  very  hot  temperature,  perspira- 
tion is  increased — its  evaporation  producing  cold.  Thus 
an  almost  even  temperature  is  kept  up.  How  necessary, 
therefore,  is  it,  that  in  winter  we  should  be  clad  in  warm 
garments  to  keep  off  the  cold  influence  of  the  external 
air,  and  that  in  summer  we  should  be  clad  in  garments 
which,  instead  of  absorbing  heat,  refract  it,  and  allow 
free  ventilation  and  evaporation  to  the  skin. 

In  regard  to  marriage,  we  have  only  to  state  that  nearly 
all  persons  who  have  attained  remarkable  longevity  were 
married.  Marriage,  as  Hufeland  states,  "  tends  to  mod- 
erate overstrained  hope  and  enthusiastic  speculation,  as 
well  as  excessive  care.  Everything,  by  the  participation 
of  another  being — by  the  intimate  connection  of  our  ex- 
istence with  another — is  rendered  milder  and  more  sup- 
portable." 

When  we  reflect  on  the  progress  of  civilized  man,  we 
notice  wonders  and  improvements  in  his  surroundings, 
for  his  welfare  and  comfort;  we  discover  a  spirit  of  in- 
quiry among  men,  a  silent  march  of  thought;  a  iteady 


SUMMARY.  213 

progress,  impelled  forward  by  an  eternal  law — nature's 
law — experience.  This  law  we  may  compare  to  a  circle; 
the  beginning  we  know  not,  the  end  we  know  not.  This 
circle  enlarges,  expands — where  is  the  limit?  Opposition, 
reproach,  threats,  and  violence  can  be  only  a  temporary 
check;  they  cannot  control  or  arrest  the  progress  of  in- 
quiry, the  keenness  of  research,  the  results  of  experience. 
But  amongst  the  varied  and  expanding  objects  of  research, 
is  not  that  inquiry  which  appertains  to  the  preservation 
of  life  the  most  important  of  all  to  humanity? 

To  say  that  everything  dies  simply  because  it  has  lived; 
that  the  age  of  man  is  fixed  irrespective  of  reason  or  cause, 
is  not  only  presumption,  but  confessedly  a  want  of  con- 
ception, a  disbelief  in  what  is  and  therefore  must  be,  and 
an  assault  on  the  fixed  and  immutable  laws  of  natural 
phenomena. 

In  the  present  day,  when  we  are  so  accustomed  to 
wonders  that  they  no  longer  excite  our  wonder;  when  we 
send  our  thoughts  almost  round  the  world  with  the  veloc- 
ity of  lightning;  when  we  hear  voices  miles  away  by  the 
agency  of  the  telephone;  the  tick  of  a  watch — even  the 
tramp  of  a  fly — by  the  microphone;  when  we  transcribe 
the  vibrations  of  sound  with  the  precision  of  a  mathema- 
tician; when  we  freeze  water  into  ice  in  white  hot  cruci- 
bles; when  we  cast  copper  into  statues  without  the  aid  of 
heat;  when  it  is  possible  to  illuminate  cities  without  gas — 
with  lamps  devoid  of  flame  or  fire;  when  some  of  the  most 
precious  minerals  are  produced  from  their  elements;  when 
we  believe  that  to-morrow  even  the  diamond  may  be  arti- 
ficially produced;  with  all  these  wonders  recently  brought 


214  SUMMARY. 

to  light  for  the  benefit  of  mankind,  is  man  himself  to  be 
debarred  from  that  social  progress  which  is  daily  mani- 
fested? Are  the  achievements  of  science  of  no  avail  in 
benefiting  his  degenerated  existence?  Will  not  our  daily 
increasing  knowledge  of  nature  and  the  behavior  of  her 
elements  eventually  tend  to  this  end?  In  reference  to 
which  Liebig  asks:  "Is  that  knowledge  not  the  philoso- 
pher's stone,  which  promises  to  disclose  to  us  the  laws  of 
life,  and  which  must  finally  yield  to  us  the  means  of  curing 
diseases  and  of  prolonging  life  f" 

The  fields  of  research  become  richer  and  wider  with 
every  new  discovery,  which  is  often  as  precious  as,  if  not 
more  useful  than  gold — actually  a  transmutation  for  the 
benefit  and  comfort  of  man.  But  as  yet  he  has  himself 
been  little  benefited  by  science,  which  must  of  necessity 
ultimately  dictate  a  means  of  curing  diseases  and  of  pro- 
longing life.  Is  it  even  just,  in  the  present  day  of  so-called 
wisdom,  to  ridicule  the  alchemists  of  old,  who  diligently 
labored  and  searched  for  a  "  virgin  earth" — a  mysterious 
substance  which  would  "change  the  baser  metals  to  gold, 
and  be  a  means  of  curing  diseases,  of  restoring  youth  to 
the  exhausted  frame  of  age,  and  of  prolonging  life  indefi- 
nitely"? Such  a  view  would  be  utterly  unjust.  For  the 
present  science  of  chemistry  owes  its  position,  its  exist- 
ence— perhaps  its  origin — to  the  untiring  observations  and 
researches  of  the  alchemists,  which  were  instilled  into 
them  in  their  laborious  searches  for  the  "  philosopher's 
stone."  All  they  sought  for  exists,  and  may  ultimately 
be  found  in  the  illimitable  science  of  chemistry. 

Oxygen  it  is  that  by  combining  with  the  substance  of 


SUMMARY.  215 

fuel  during  combustion  causes  the  consumption  of  that 
fuel.  Oxygen  it  is  that  by  combining  in  a  similar  man- 
ner with  the  substance  of  the  human  body,  chiefly  during 
respiration,  causes  the  waste  of  the  system  and  the  neces- 
sity for  food.  Oxygen  it  is  that  corrodes  and  eats  away 
the  solid  masonry  of  palaces,  castles,  mansions,  and 
churches,  and  eventually  crumbles  them  to  dust.  Iron 
bridges,  marble  monuments,  massive  structures — of  what- 
ever architecture  or  material — must  eventually  succumb 
to  this  all-destroying  agent. 

The  Roman  proverb  runs,  "  Tempus  edax  rerum"  Time, 
the  consumer  of  all  things.  But  Time  would  be  of  no 
avail  without  oxygen,  which  is  really  the  "  edax  rerum" 

Time  is  also  credited  with  the  changes  which  take  place 
in  the  human  body  between  youth  and  old  age;  but  oxy- 
gen it  is  which,  by  wasting  man's  tissues,  necessitates  his 
supplying  himself  with  food,  which  food  contains  earthy 
and  obstructive  matter,  which  matter  by  accumulating  in 
the  numerous  organs  and  structures,  increases  his  density 
and  rigidity,  and  by  hardening  the  same  produces  the 
various  characteristics,  both  in  appearance  and  texture,  of 
old  age,  and  by  stiffening  his  joints,  that  decrepitude  and 
inactivity  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  induration  and 
ossification  of  the  numerous  organs,  cause  the  human 
machine  gradually  to  move  more  and  more  slowly  and 
ultimately  to  stop,  and  die  a  "  natural  death." 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  oxygen,  though  necessary  to  sup- 
port life,  is  the  primary  cause,  by  necessitating  food,  of 
those  changes  which  are  only  so  many  steps  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave.  The  paradox  therefore  exists  that 


21(5  SUMMABY. 

even  while  we  breathe  the  breath  of  life  we  also  inhale 
the  "  edax  rerum"  which  requires  only  Time  to  bring  about 
our  destruction. 

We  may  therefore  say  that  oxygen  is  but  the  primary 
cause,  because  it  necessitates  food;  and  that  the  earthy 
and  obstructive  matter  contained  in  that  food  is  the  imme- 
diate and  actual  cause,  inasmuch  as  it  gradually  gives 
rise  to  rigidity,  ossification,  and  death. 

As  a  jet  kept  free  from  clogging  and  obstructive  mat- 
ter, and  supplied  with  pure  gas,  will  continue  to  burn, 
independent  of  time,  "so  the  human  body,  supplied  with 
food  free  from  earthy  and  obstructive  matter,  will  retain 
the  flame  of  life." 

In  the  pages  of  Nature  are  distinctly  and  legibly  writ- 
ten— to  those  who  will  but  refer  with  patience — the  laws 
of  life  and  the  laws  of  death;  and  in  clear,  unmistakable 
characters  the  reason — the  cause — of  the  ultimate  death 
of  every  animate  being.  There  are  abundant  materials 
for  investigation  and  research;  the  cause  of  "old  age"  in 
man  is  demonstrated,  and  a  means  of  checking  it  has 
herein  been  clearly  explained;  and  it  would  not  be  con- 
trary to  the  dictates  of  our  nature  to  hope  that  science 
may  be  incited  into  an  inquiry  for  more  general  perfec- 
tion, which  may  be  the  means  of  actually  conquering  it: 

"  By  showing  conclusively  and  clearly, 

That  Death  is  a  stupid  blunder  merely, 
J^  And  not  a  necessity  of  our  lives." 

LONGFELLOW 

THE  END. 


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